International biodiversity negotiations are underway, but political turmoil is bogging down Canada's response

As international biodiversity talks get underway, political turmoil at home is jeopardizing Canada’s nature protection plans.

United Nations negotiations to protect nature kicked off in Colombia this week at a meeting called COP16, with the goal of implementing the landmark nature protection pact, formally known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) inked two years ago. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not scheduled to attend this year’s nature summit, and Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault still hopes to make an appearance, but with Trudeau’s future in question and opposition parties set to pounce, it remains unclear what Canada’s participation will look like. 

But political headwinds, including a fractured House of Commons and threat of non-confidence votes toppling Trudeau’s Liberal government, mean even the nature accountability bill, introduced in June, may not go through. By requiring the federal government to set out biodiversity protection plans, the bill is intended to keep Canada on track with its biodiversity targets to meet the international pact’s goals of conserving 30 per cent of land and water by 2030.

In an interview with Canada’s National Observer, Guilbeault said he is working with the NDP to try to push the nature accountability bill through the legislative process. 

“Things are very complicated in the House, but if the NDP is willing to help move [that] piece of legislation we could certainly advance that,” he said. 

NDP Environment critic Laurel Collins said Liberals can’t bank on the NDP’s support shepherding the nature accountability act through the House because the bill “has some key gaps.”

“The Liberals again have put something forward that is too weak to actually ensure that we will meet targets,” she said. 

“It feels like the Liberals are right now more focused on their own issues than on delivering on the critical issues facing Canadians and facing our environment,” she added.

Collins said the NDP will be putting forward amendments to the bill, including specific biodiversity targets detailing species health and distribution, habitat quality, descriptions of the drivers of biodiversity loss, and baking national targets into the act to ensure longer-term targets are met. 

The current political landscape suggests a tough road ahead for the Liberals. Beyond a growing chorus of Liberal dissenters calling for Trudeau to step down, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is holding firm to his threat that the Bloc will push for an early election if Liberals fail to hike old age security payouts by 10 per cent for people between the ages of 65 and 74 by Oct. 29. At the same time, the nature accountability bill introduced by the Liberals that would affirm the country’s commitment to protect nature and impose duties on the environment and climate change minister, like establishing biodiversity strategies and action plans, is not yet law and will need support from other parties to pass.

It’s a far cry from the last set of major nature negotiations hosted in Montreal in 2022, where Trudeau and Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault were riding high after stickhandling complicated biodiversity negotiations in partnership with China to land what experts and civil society called a Paris Agreement-style pact for nature. The Kunming-Montreal GBF aims to “halt and reverse” nature loss, conserve 30 per cent of land and water by the end of the decade, and sets 23 targets for countries to meet. 

Guilbeault said this year the goal is to keep up the momentum from the last round of negotiations. He pointed to his government’s 2030 national biodiversity strategy which aims to meet the Kunming-Montreal GBF goals, and a nature accountability bill, as evidence the federal government is committed. 

The 2030 strategy sets 23 targets for the federal government (reflecting the 23 targets set by the Kunming-Montreal GBF), while the accountability act affirms the country’s commitment to protect nature, but does not legally entrench those goals. 

Of 196 countries that are signatories to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, only “about 30 countries have presented such plans,” Guilbeault said, referring to the 2030 national biodiversity strategy. 

Rubber meets road

COP16 is scheduled to run until Nov. 1 in Cali, Colombia. Beyond the headline target of 30 per cent of land and water conserved by 2030, two years ago governments agreed that rich Global North countries would finance poorer Global South countries with US$20 billion per year by 2025 to protect ecosystems, and would recognize Indigenous leadership as a central pillar of achieving that goal. 

Other than finance and Indigenous participation, this year’s debate will focus on monitoring frameworks to gauge countries’ progress on nature protection, the failure of many countries to publish biodiversity protection strategies as previously agreed, and how to share information from genetic resources (for example, using DNA acquired from water samples in a forest to detect endangered species). 

It will be a crucial round of talks given nature loss is already contributing to an extinction crisis. According to researchers, at least two million species are at risk of extinction, which threatens ecosystems across the globe. And for years, scientists have warned that we are on the brink of the world’s sixth mass extinction, with the last being 65 million years ago when an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. This time it’s driven by habitat loss caused by extractive industries, like logging and mining, and climate change caused by the relentless burning of fossil fuels.

Guilbeault said a central plank of Canada’s negotiating position heading into COP16 is to ensure the role of Indigenous Peoples is recognized in any agreement. 

One issue to be negotiated this year is a “permanent mechanism” for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) — the UN body mandated with hosting nature negotiations — to engage with Indigenous Peoples. 

The U.N. is a system of nation states that does not formally include the Indigenous nations within their individual borders. Those countries, however, recognize that Indigenous Peoples play a crucial role protecting nature. Despite making up around six per cent of the world’s population, Indigenous Peoples protect approximately 80 per cent of the planet’s remaining biodiversity. That’s why countries are looking for ways to formalize Indigenous participation in conservation goals at the summit.

This promises to be a tough negotiation because countries come at the issue from very different perspectives, Guilbeault said. In international negotiations, a common term is “Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities” (IPLCs), which in theory reflects the interests of frequently overlooked groups of people. Some countries such as Colombia want to ensure Afro-descendants (which would be included as a “local community”) don’t slip through the cracks and are included in the formal mechanism. Others object to including “local communities” under the same umbrella as Indigenous Nations given Indigenous Peoples have distinct, recognized rights under the U.N. system.

“Obviously for Indigenous Nations they have a real issue with that that we respect,” Guilbeault said. “And that's a position Canada has been defending, saying that we shouldn't put them together for all these historical reasons.”

Salomé Sané, a campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, said COP16 is a critical checkpoint for Canada as one of the few countries that has made progress since COP15. However, that progress comes “with a big asterisk, because as it stands, the proposed legislation remains too weak to live up to its potential.”

Sané said she wants to see Canada include formal targets, transparent reporting and accountability mechanisms baked into the accountability bill, and to prioritize “the rights of Indigenous Peoples — particularly over corporate interests.”

Typical for international negotiations, ambitious outcomes are closely linked to financing; poorer countries require more money than they can currently access to achieve ambitious targets. 

A report from the OECD in September found countries have provided US$15.4 billion of biodiversity financing as of 2022, the most recent figures available. 

However, the goal of providing $20 billion by 2025 — and $30 billion annually by 2030 — remains a far cry from best available estimates of the true cost. According to the U.N., the world is facing an annual biodiversity financing gap of $700 billion.

“Bridging this gap is essential to safeguarding the health of the planet, as it directly impacts climate stability, food security, and the well-being of societies worldwide,” the U.N. Development Programme said in a statement Tuesday.