International climate meetings have repeatedly made the headlines in recent months. Today, we end the year with the biggest conference on the protection of biodiversity for more than ten years: the 15e conference of parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, COP15. Much like running a marathon without being able to stop to catch our breath, trying to keep up and keep up can sometimes feel overwhelming and even suffocating.
As acting CEO of Greenpeace Canada, I know that feeling. But we can’t lose sight of what we’re running towards, our goal, and what depends on us to achieve it.
Right now, delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Montreal to set a new framework for nature protection for the decade to come. This decision comes at a time when one million species are threatened with extinction worldwide and the systems on which they depend – and on which we also depend – are pushed to the brink.
Some regions reach what scientists call a breaking point: the point when the ecosystem can no longer cope with the pressures and collapses. Imagine the Amazon rainforest turning into savannah. Or the Great Barrier Reef turning into a graveyard stripped of all life. Or the Greenland ice cap which is literally collapsing.
COP15 can be a turning point for nature — and for humanity.
We need an ambitious plan from the delegates taking part in this conference. A plan that recognizes the urgency of the interconnected biodiversity and climate crises. A plan that ends harmful subsidies to polluting industries and directs resources from wealthy nations like Canada to countries in the Global South, which have long been subjected to environmental destruction through capitalist and colonial practices. And a plan that protects at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 by transferring the power of extractive industries to indigenous peoples and local communities.
I cannot stress this last point enough. Countries like Canada have a long history of violating the rights of Indigenous peoples to their lands, waters and resources. And too often, these violations turn into violence against them. For example, armed members of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) forcibly evicted the Secwépemc Nation from their territories for peacefully opposing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. The expansion was reapproved in 2019 without the consent of many indigenous peoples.
At the same time, we have seen custodians of Indigenous lands lead the way in filling conservation gaps from coast to coast when colonial governments were slow to act. It is high time to commit to a plan centered on the rights of indigenous peoples, which recognizes their knowledge as an earth science in its own right and which respects the principle of free, prior and informed consent for any activity in their territories.
As the host country of this landmark conference, Canada must lead by example and lead the way. It starts with getting our house in order.
Released earlier this year, our report Protect nature, protect life advocates for a federal law on nature and biodiversity as a first step. This new law would outline how exactly Canada will meet its 2030 goals and require transparent progress reporting. It would recognize that we live on stolen Indigenous lands and fundamentally decolonize our approach to environmental protection. Finally, it would allow the public to sue the federal government if it fails to meet its commitments. This is an important step because Canada has fallen short of a single biodiversity target set at the 10e conference of the parties to the CBD, in Aichi, Japan, in 2010.
Seven in ten Canadians are in favor of such a law, and more than eight in ten believe that Canada should lead by example at COP15 as a host country, according to a new poll commissioned by Greenpeace. Steven Guilbeault, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, himself declared that this conference is “an opportunity for Canada to show the world that we can and will do our part from coast to coast. ‘other “.
Over the next week again, our leaders will have the opportunity to prove it. Will their actions get us off the highway of mass extinction? COP15 is one of our latest outings.