A key date on the horizon for biodiversity targets is 2020, with discussion developing for COP 10 in Nagoya in a wide range of fora internationally.
EU discussion on a whole range of policy targets for 2020 has been underway for a while, with biodiversity part of the mix.
In January, the Commission produced an overview and options paper for the Council that identified the need for the baseline produced by EEA. This paper is worth reading as a statement of the current position, with gaps identified in implementation (of Natura 2000, for example), policy, knowledge and data, integration and funding. There is a clearly stated need for research to support policy, and reference to the IPBES. The paper also promotes the idea of the 2050 vision:
"Biodiversity and ecosystem services – the world's natural capital – are preserved, valued and, insofar as possible, restored for their intrinsic value and so that they can continue to support economic prosperity and human well-being as well as avert catastrophic changes linked to biodiversity loss."
In March, the Council agreed one of the options from the paper as the 2020 target for the EU:
"To halt the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, restore them in so far as feasible, while stepping up the EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss."
This is the most demanding of four options identified in the original paper from the Commission. So we will now see the development of a new EU Biodiversity Strategy this year on the basis of the 2020 target.
To add to this, there were discussions last week on 13 July in the European Parliament Committee on Environment,
Public Health and Food Safety on EU policy and targets for biodiversity into the future. The committee home page gives links to documents. This is about getting a Parliamentary resolution to put pressure on the Commission to adopt particular positions with respect to CBD in Nagoya and the development of 2020 targets - there is repeated emphasis on the
perceived lack of effectiveness of the EU policy approach. The paper on EU strategic objectives probably gives the most information from the Committee perspective.
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