“The current global fossil energy shock and shortages in synthetic fertilisers indicate that the time to invest in clean energy and in working with nature, not against it, is now”
accelerated action is going to be a key gauge of success in Yerevan. Other crucial outcomes are related to the enablers of success: resource mobi- lisation for implementation, capacity building and development, scientific and technical cooperation, as well as the further operationalisation of the groundbreaking Cali Fund, established to ensure that companies making commercial use of digital sequence information on genetic resources con- tribute a portion of their earnings to biodiversity conservation. Progress is also expected in further strengthening the role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in the work of the convention. Stewards of biodiversity in many parts of the world, they see biodiversity loss and climate change as what they are: two sides of the same crisis. In Yerevan, this grow- ing recognition should be translated into further steps towards closer coop- eration and synergistic implementation of the Rio Conventions. Parties to the Cartagena Protocol will seek progress on enhancing risk management, capacity building and detection tools related to living mod- ified organisms. Parties to the Nagoya Protocol will conduct a second effec- tiveness review that should provide parties with actionable guidance to strengthen the fair and equitable shar- ing of benefits from the use of their genetic resources. But there is more to success than what the negotiations can deliver. The
2026 UN Biodiversity Conference must be a moment of whole-of- government and whole-of-society engagement, spanning government departments, business and finance, and stakeholders from all walks of life. We are working with Team Armenia to make that happen. How can G7 leaders and their guests at the Évian Summit help? Évian Summit participants can play a pivotal role for biodiversity. At the G7 environment ministers’ meeting in Paris in April, encouraging pro- gress was made. We need the G7 to lead by undertaking essential and bold transformations that decouple socio-economic progress from the destruction of nature. This includes showing the way on the reform of harmful incentives. The current global fossil energy shock and shortages in synthetic fertilisers indicate that the time to invest in clean energy and in working with nature, not against it, is now. Standing at this crossroads, G7 mem- bers have the wherewithal to do the right thing at home towards bringing about global change. In these geopo- litically fraught times, constructive engagement by the G7 members with other parties at the UN Biodiver- sity Conference will foster solidarity and cooperation and bring the world closer to living in harmony with nature, protecting our planet’s life support system.
// ASTRID SCHOMAKER Astrid Schomaker was appointed executive secretary of the Conven- tion on Biological Diversity in 2024. Since 2017, she was director for global sustainable development and for green diplomacy and multilater- alism in the European Commission’s Environment Department. She also served as director for environment policy strategy at the European Commission and headed its divisions for marine and freshwater issues as well as chemicals. She has also been co-chair of the steering committee of the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel since 2015.
X-TWITTER @unbiodiversity www.cbd.int
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