A Timeline Of The CBD COPs

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established in 1992 as a legally binding treaty to conserve biodiversity, promote sustainable use, and ensure fair benefit-sharing from genetic resources. Key milestones of the CBD are the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety, the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing, and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which guide conservation efforts, leading to the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. COP15 and 16 were pivotal in creating and implementing the “30x30” goal to protect 30% of the planet’s land and waters by 2030, along with securing financial commitments to support biodiversity efforts.

Reforestation: What Is Its Potential Impact In Mitigating the Climate Crisis

Planting trees is widely recognised as an important form of climate mitigation, but it comes with major challenges, including competition for land use and high risks of reversal. Yet even conservative analyses of its potential place reforestation at the top of the list of climate solutions needed to achieve global net zero.

Results-Based Climate Financing: Rewarding Real Climate Action

Results-based climate finance ties payments directly to independently verified environmental outcomes, ensuring climate funds deliver measurable impact. This approach increases transparency and accountability, but faces challenges around upfront costs, technical capacity, and climate justice. Mechanisms like REDD+ and the Amazon Fund demonstrate both the promise and complexity of results-based model in practice.

How Are Wars Affecting Climate Change?

Wars have a significant and often overlooked impact on climate change, with recent studies showing that military operations and related activities do account for around 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the annual emissions of many countries. Under the Paris Agreement, nations are not required to report on their emissions from military activities which means that national inventories vastly underestimate real emissions.As conflicts like those in Gaza and Ukraine demonstrate, the carbon footprint of war, including from direct combat, from the destruction of infrastructure, and the process of rebuilding, can reach tens or even hundreds of millions of tons of CO2. This underscores the urgent need for mandatory military emissions reporting and military mitigation strategies.

GUEST FEATURE: Have We Abandoned Development? – Insights From FfD4

Valentin Chavanne is a UNFCCC Youth Delegate for Austria and attended the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development hosted by the United Nations in Seville, Spain. FFD4 brought together global leaders, economists and development experts to advance dialogue on mobilising sustainable financing for development in line with the 2030 Agenda.