The biodiversity negotiations that concluded 2024

Briefing Note
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In the final quarter of 2024 four major environment meetings were convened. These included the “triple COP” – separate meetings of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP-16), the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP-29), and the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Desertification (UNCCD COP-16); and the 11th meeting of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The biennial CBD COP is arguably the most significant biodiversity meeting on the global calendar, while the biennial UNCCD COP covers various topics of direct relevant to biodiversity and the UNCCD has followed the CBD lead in many respects including by embracing CBD biodiversity targets. Meetings of the IPBES Plenary are arguably the second most important biodiversity meeting on the global calendar. None of these meetings attract as much public attention, or as many delegates, as the UNFCCC COP (66,000 registrations for COP-29) they still draw substantial participation, with about 23,000 registrations for CBD COP-16, about 20,000 for UNCCD COP-16, and about 900 for IPBES-11. So, what has been all the convening and negotiation around biodiversity focused on, and what are the links between these meetings? Here we focus on the two meetings that are most relevant to biodiversity: CBD COP-16 and IPBES-11.

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