Call from the architects of the Paris Agreement | Heads of State and Government must make COP15 a success

The heads of state and government of the planet must get directly involved so that the Montreal conference on biodiversity gives birth in December to an “ambitious and transformative” agreement, plead the architects of the Paris Agreement on the climate .

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
The Press

“The world came together in 2015 to secure the Paris Agreement; we urge leaders to do the same now to deliver a strong sister agreement” on biodiversity, say the signatories, including former Prime Minister of France Laurent Fabius, who chaired COP21 in Paris, and Laurence Tubiana, who was then French Ambassador for Climate Change.

“The climate and nature agendas are closely linked,” they say in their appeal launched on Tuesday at the 27^e United Nations climate conference (COP27), in Egypt, stressing that it will be impossible to limit global warming to 1.5°C without protecting and restoring nature.

Montreal will host from December 7 to 19, 2022 the 15^e Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, but it is not expected that Heads of State and Government will participate, as COPs on biodiversity traditionally take place at ministerial level.

The urgency of the situation, however, demands that heads of state and government get involved, this time, argue the architects of the Paris Agreement, who believe that COP15 in Montreal will be an “unprecedented opportunity” to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss.

“We can’t afford to miss it,” they say. Bold leadership is needed. »

COP15 must lead to an agreement which, like the Paris Agreement, should encourage countries to “commit to and intensify their action commensurate with the scale of the challenge”, they plead.

This expectation will also have to provide the necessary financial and technical support, guarantee a solid implementation mechanism, recognize the role of nature-based solutions and take into account the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples, they list.

The most important summit of the decade

The call from the architects of the Paris Agreement is timely to create “an impetus” in anticipation of the Montreal conference, which will be “the most important summit of the decade” in terms of biodiversity, believes Eddy Pérez, director of international climate diplomacy at the Climate Action Network Canada and lecturer at the University of Montreal.

“We’re talking about people who thought, worked out, participated in the diplomatic process that led us to the Paris Agreement,” he said.

People like Laurent Fabius understand “the importance of using all diplomatic means to define an agreement on biodiversity that is ambitious, balanced and which requires the highest possible attention for it to be adopted”, believes Mr. Pérez. , that The Press joined in Sharm el-Sheikh, where he is participating in COP27.

COP15 will have to succeed in “creating a new paradigm where we will really try to respond to the current crisis [de la biodiversité] with much more ambitious goals,” he believes.

And such an objective cannot be achieved without involvement at the highest level of the State.

“Sometimes a minister [de l’Environnement] alone, who cannot manage to discuss with his colleague from Finance or Energy, cannot make a decision on the job, during a summit that lasts 10 days”, he illustrates.

“It’s worth having leaders on site, they represent the whole government and we can make decisions right away,” he continues.

Three weeks before COP15, it is not too late to orchestrate the participation of Heads of State and Government, believes Eddy Pérez, who underlines that their participation can be done virtually, as the Leaders’ Summit was. on the climate organized by US President Joe Biden, in the spring of 2021.