The long-awaited biennial Conference of the Parties-or COP-to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity got underway last week in Montreal after a two-year delay caused by the covid pandemic.
The convention is working toward a Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to serve as the underlying goals and targets to achieve the objectives of the convention in the current decade (or “post-2020” as participants like to say), and beyond. Most COP attendees are working towards the development and adoption of an ambitious and robust post-2020 GBF to be agreed upon at the close of the meeting.