Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) launched an open process for stakeholders to provide their perspectives for potential items for Canada’s position paper for the upcoming meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The 4 key areas ECCC wanted input on were:
1) The Structure and Alignment of Global Targets (e.g. Should the current set of Aichi targets of 5 goals and 20 targets be changed?)
2) Gaps and Opportunities (e.g. What are the gaps that should be filled in a post-2020 strategic plan?)
3) Ambition and Accountability (e.g. Are more ambitious targets needed or is it more ambitious action that we need?)
4) Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Sectors (e.g. Are there specific sectors such as mining, forestry and agriculture, where it would be relevant and possible to have sector-specific targets in the context of the post-2020 strategic plan for biodiversity?
Next steps – Canada’s Approach to the Post 2020 Process
ECCC will finalize consolidating the views and produce a document that will be shared with the discussion group. In the fall, ECCC will reinitiate meetings with the post 2020 discussion group to get input/views on these possible Canadian positions.
The documents and other relevant information will be considered in formally developing Canadian positions for key CBD meetings, including COP-14 (Nov. 2018), SBSTTA-23 (Nov. 2019) and SBI-3 (June 2020). At the end of the process, ECCC will be making recommendations to upper levels of government for a decision on Canada’s negotiating mandate ahead of COP-15 where the post-2020 international strategic plan on biodiversity will be considered.S
Canadian Committee for IUCN 