Environment Minister Bhupinder Yadav on Sunday stressed the need for a new and dedicated mechanism to allocate funds to developing countries, saying there is a need to bring out an ambitious and realistic Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
“India is committed to working closely with all parties to enable us all to deliver an ambitious and realistic GBF,” Yadav said at the UN Conference on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Montreal, Canada.
India said that developing countries bear most of the burden in implementing the biodiversity conservation goals and therefore need adequate funds and technology transfer.
Acknowledging the contributions of various parties, Yadav added: “I hope that this conference will reach a consensus on the establishment of the GBF after 2020.”
The goals and targets set in the GBF should be ambitious but realistic and workable, said the Environment Minister.
Speaking at COP15, Yadav said the successful implementation of a post-2020 GBF will depend on the pathways and means put in place for an equally ambitious “resource mobilization mechanism”.
“There is a need to create a new and dedicated mechanism for providing funding to parties in developing countries. Such a fund should be operational at the earliest to ensure effective implementation of the GBF post-2020 by all countries,” the minister said.
He added that protecting biodiversity must also be based on “common but differentiated responsibilities and corresponding capabilities” (CBDR) as climate change also has an impact on nature.
CBDR is defined as “States have common but distinct responsibilities given their differing contributions to global environmental degradation”.
India’s call for funding comes as the 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) finalize negotiations on a post-2020 GBF – a set of new goals and targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
There have been repeated calls for the CBDR principle to be included in finance-related goals.
At the CBD COP15, the parties are also trying to reach a consensus to eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies such as subsidies for fossil fuel production, agriculture, forestry and fisheries by at least $500 billion annually and to use these funds for biodiversity conservation.
However, Yadav said India does not agree to cut farm-related subsidies and redirect savings to biodiversity conservation as there are many other national priorities.
For developing countries, agriculture is an important economic engine for rural communities, and crucial support for these sectors cannot be diverted, Yadav said.
Biodiversity conservation requires the holistic and integrated conservation and restoration of ecosystems. In this context, ecosystem approaches to biodiversity conservation should be adopted rather than nature-based solutions, the minister added.
