On Thursday, 15 December, authorities from across the UN System gathered in Montreal, Canada, to participate at the High-Level Dialogue for the Environmental Management Group (UNEMG) to discuss the implementation of the Common Approach on Biodiversity and the Post-2020 Global Diversity Framework.
The result of a system-wide push to incorporate biodiversity targets into all facets of the UN’s work, the Dialogue aimed to facilitate a platform to reiterate the commitment of UN Agencies in supporting national governments to consider the value of biodiversity. This initiative is especially relevant following the negotiations held throughout COP15 that resulted in setting the goal of protecting at least 30% of the world’s land and sea areas by 2030.
Representing the United Nations University, Professor Kaveh Madani, Head of Nexus Research Programme at UNU-FLORES and the Incoming Director of UNU-INWEH, brought the UNU perspective to the Dialogue. Professor Madani particularly highlighted the potential of UNU to support the implementation of the Common Approach through its unique bridging role as a connector between science and policy.
Along with some other senior officials of UN agencies, Professor Guenther, the UNU-FLORES Director and UNU Senior Official to the EMG, sent a recorded affirmation of UNU’s commitment to the Implementation of the Common Approach to Biodiversity as the Academic Arm of the UN.
The Common Approach to Integrating Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Development into UN Policy and Programme Planning and Delivery is a product that UNU-FLORES was proud to contribute to the development of, and one that the Institute looks forward to executing. Indeed, the Institute’s co-hosted 2022 Dresden Nexus Conference was organised around the theme of ‘Biodiversity: Stewardship for Vital Resources’ – from which, a highly promising Signatory Product was derived; the Institute is also intensely involved in biodiversity projects in Namibia.
As the Academic Arm of the United Nations, and in the spirit of empowering a new generation of advocates for biodiversity and facilitating the connection of science to policy through state-of-the-art research, the United Nations University affirms its commitment to the UN Common Approach to Biodiversity – to which our Institutes were proud to contribute, and the implementation of which we wholeheartedly support.
With the next UN Climate Conference – COP28 – scheduled to be held in Dubai next year, during which, the uptake of the Common Approach throughout the UN will be discussed, UNU-FLORES anticipates strengthening its biodiversity focus in collaboration with both current and new partner institutes and the wider UN-system.
