COP15 in Montreal | A fascinating microcosm

More than 18,000 people from 196 countries converged on Montreal to take part in COP15. The Palais des Congrès, declared UN territory, has become a microcosm where it is sometimes difficult to navigate. What happens at a major biodiversity conference? Follow the leader…

A titanic challenge

The COP, Conference of the Parties in English, it is first of all a major international meeting where the member countries seek to conclude an agreement by consensus. This is also the main challenge: to rally all the parties, without exception, behind a fiercely disputed text. A titanic challenge. “It’s like having 196 guests at a dinner party and everyone has to agree on the menu. When it’s time to sit down to eat, not many people are satisfied with their meal,” illustrates Caroline Brouillette, National Policy Director at Climate Action Network Canada. According to a UN tally, countries have registered nearly 4,700 delegates. The choice of the menu will therefore be fiercely disputed.

Information, tons of information

Each morning around 9 a.m., the Head of Communications for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, David Ainsworth, holds a press briefing for the media where he summarizes the pace of the negotiations and gives an overview of the day’s program to come. What to cover? What topics are the most interesting? Answering these questions is the daily challenge of Diwakar Pyakurel, a Nepalese journalist sent to Montreal by OnlineKhabar, an online news site, and by the Inter Press Service News agency. “We really receive a lot, but a lot of information. I have to sort out what is important to me based on my local context,” he explains.

A complex organization chart

How does the COP on biodiversity work? Stay focused, you quickly lose your Latin. At the top of the organizational chart is the plenary session, where final decisions are approved. Two working groups are responsible for moving the files forward. The draft global biodiversity framework is currently 21 pages long and contains 22 targets. The working group n^oh 1 deals in particular with the objective n^oh 3, the one where it is a question of protecting 30% of the territory by 2030. Are you still following? When the discussions break down, committees are formed within the working groups with a limited number of participants in the hope of unblocking a contentious subject. One of them was still sitting around 6 p.m. Friday. It should be noted that the objective of the working groups is to settle as many points in dispute as possible in view of the arrival of the ministers, who will negotiate the most delicate subjects during the second week of COP15.

Young people want to be heard

Every day, dozens of conferences and events are also on the program. For Friday, The Press counted more than 70. For example, a round table organized by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network. “Young people want to be heard. They generally are,” believes Anina Uhlig of the PeaceNexus Foundation, a Swiss NGO. In interview with The Press, she says she is impressed by their work. “They are very strategic. They offer texts [aux négociateurs]. Their battle horse is that you have to stop doing the same thing if you want to obtain a different result. “Crossed near the youth pavilion, @Hilathkilla and @Lordlobbie, two New York rappers, explain that they were invited by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network. “We are here to bring joy, launches @Hilathkilla, but often people tell us to stop. »

Science, religion and biodiversity

Canada and China obviously each have their own pavilion, the first as the host country and the second because it holds the presidency of COP15. A kiosk of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is located near that of the Ministry of the Environment of Brazil. France rubs shoulders with Cameroon. Science is close to religion. On Friday, participants were chatting at the “Faith-based” kiosk located just next to the “Academia and Research” stand.

“Nature will always win”

On Friday morning, activists denounced the killings of environmental activists in several countries. About twenty people seated on the ground, between the pavilions of Canada and that of China, each holding the photo of a fallen environmentalist. For example, Indra Pelani, killed on February 28, 2015 in Indonesia. Aysin and Ali Ulvi Büyüknohutçu, who died on May 10, 2017 in Turkey, or J. Snowlin, killed in 2018 in India when she was 17 years old. Still in 2022, environmental activists in several countries are risking their lives in the name of their convictions. “We cannot negotiate with nature,” said Ayisha Siddiqa a few minutes later in a press conference where NGOs took stock of the negotiations in progress. I don’t know how many meetings will be necessary for us to understand that. Nature will always win,” added the young Pakistani with a determined air.