Introduction

In 2015, the international community agreed on 17 potentially transformative Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Shortly thereafter, the Paris Agreement was adopted at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP21), signalling a shared commitment to strengthening global responses to climate change. Although delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) followed these milestone agreements, calling on countries to work toward achieving 4 long-term goals and 23 specific targets aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity losses as well as safeguarding nature. Around the same period, an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) was convened to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. Together, these agreements and negotiations fostered a sense of optimism that the world was willing and able to tackle the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.