Founding members of the recently formed Global Alliance on Biodiversity will be seeking additional support from world leaders when a high-level team attends the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 30) in Brazil later this year.
President Dr Irfaan Ali said at the closing of the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit held here that the team will not only reaffirm the new Alliance’s agenda to protect 30 per cent of the planet’s lands and oceans by 2030 and achieve global harmony with nature by 2050, but it will seek more signatories to this bold initiative.
“The founding members of the Alliance will continue to work virtually and as much together to finalise and crystalise the input document for COP30 and for us to assemble a high-level team to the United Nations…. After which we hope to find champions around the world in getting us as many signatories at the end of cop 30 as possible,” he said.
The President reiterated the commitment of the Alliance to have at least 140 countries; non-governmental organisations and the private sector sign on to the Alliance by the end of COP 30.
He said that with the Alliance moving from vision to action through collective leadership, shared knowledge and inclusive stewardship, it now has a bold yet practical path to halt biodiversity loss and finance a nature-positive future, providing a turning point for the planet.
He reiterated the five strategic pillars: achieving the 30 by 30 biodiversity goal, mainstreaming biodiversity and corporate development planning, unlocking innovative financing, empowering local people and indigenous communities, and building a robust monitoring and accountability system.
The President said the summit has been such a success that already there have been numerous suggestions in these areas. For example, identifying partners for smart financing, including that of an investment bank, and monitoring such as the Gross Biodiversity Power Index, among others.
“So we are showing from the very inception that we want a transparent system,” the President posited, “a system where there is measurement and evaluation and a system where there is accountability. And these are key features of a market driven approach. We want this to be a market driven approach that is why it must be open, transparent with a built-in accountability matrix inside and these are some of the things we are pursuing.”
As Chair of the Alliance and a leader in biodiversity advocacy, President Ali said that Guyana has committed to establishing a technical secretariat here. The country will operationalise a fully standardised national biodiversity monitoring system by 2030, the first of its kind globally. It will develop the National Biodiversity Information System to serve as a digital backbone for conservation, finance and policy, and launch a National Biodiversity Management Monitoring Strategy with border-to-border biodiversity monitoring.
