Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-06-Speech-3-098"
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"en.20101006.12.3-098"2
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"Madam President, the European Union’s strategic objectives for Nagoya are set out in the Council conclusions of 22 December 2009 and 15 March 2010 and will be further elaborated and refined by the Environmental Council on 14 October 2010. Three issues stand out, in particular, as priorities for the European Union.
What is perhaps new is the increasing knowledge and awareness about economics of biodiversity loss and the extent to which this undermines prospects for alleviating poverty in the long term. The international study of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) shows how costly biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation is to our economies, including the economies in developing countries. So it is not any more a moral question; it is actually a question of our quality of life, and yet the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems is not seen as a development priority.
It is hoped that TEEB will go some way towards changing this situation so that more of our developing country partners give higher priority to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in their development strategies but, even where it is not a focus of action in country and regional support strategies, European development policy nevertheless requires that environment and sustainable management of natural resources be treated as a cross-cutting issue to be integrated into all development activities. Both the Development Cooperation Instrument and the European Development Fund include provisions for addressing biodiversity.
To conclude, with regard to mechanisms for ensuring the right of access to information and public participation in decision making related to biodiversity, the EU fully supports the draft COP 10 decision on the strategic plan, which urges parties and other governments to enable broad and effective participation in the full implementation of the objectives of the convention and strategic plan. We also believe that the Protocol on access and benefit sharing should oblige contracting parties to establish domestic frameworks that allow indigenous and local communities to take prior and informed decisions on whether or not to give access to their traditional knowledge.
I would endorse everything said by the authors of the questions and I am truly grateful for their valuable contributions.
The first is the adoption of the new strategic plan for the convention for the period 2011-2020. It should reflect the best available scientific knowledge about the state of biodiversity and provide an effective framework of implementation that is sufficiently ambitious to trigger step-up action by all the parties to the convention. This is vital if we are to prevent further species extinctions and enable biodiversity to continue providing the essential goods and services that we all depend on, and especially the poor.
The second strategic priority for the European Union is to conclude negotiations on the Protocol on access and benefit sharing as a key contribution to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity beyond 2010 and in line with the commitment taken by all the parties at COP 8 in 2006. This is an expectation widely shared by developing country parties to the convention, many of which see it as their top priority.
The third is to ensure that adequate resources are mobilised to enable the implementation of the post-2010 biodiversity policy framework, including the new strategy plan. The EU as a whole is committed, as part of its 2020 biodiversity target adopted earlier this year, to step up its contribution to averting global biodiversity loss, but I think we can also be pretty proud of what we are actually doing. Over the period 2002-2008, the European Union provided over USD 1 billion, approximately EUR 740 million, for global biodiversity annually, largely through the Thematic Programme on Environment and Natural Resources under the Development Cooperation Instrument, but also the EDF, both of which include adequate provisions for biodiversity.
Member States have also contributed significantly to the recent replenishment of the Global Environmental Facility, for which USD 1.2 billion is earmarked for biodiversity. This represents a 28% increase compared to the last replenishment, and the new EUR 1 billion MDG initiative announced by President Barroso at the UN General Assembly in New York last month can clearly also benefit biodiversity.
The Commission is currently updating its own biodiversity-related development cooperation figures, using the same methodology as it has used to account for climate-related funding, and we are, of course, encouraging Member States to do the same so that we can present a consolidated figure in Nagoya.
We also need to look at other ways of how we can contribute to enhancing implementation of the Convention on Biodiversity and help developing country parties deliver on their commitments under the convention, in particular, the new post-2010 strategic plan that will be adopted in Nagoya. We intend to explore ways and means to do this, together with our partners in Nagoya.
Biodiversity loss is not a new challenge to poverty alleviation, as already mentioned. The 2010 Biodiversity Target was incorporated into MDG 7 already in 2002 and the EU itself has explicitly underscored the important linkages between biodiversity and development on many occasions. Just last month in his statement during the High-Level Event on Biodiversity at the United Nations General Assembly, President Barroso remarked that our ability to end poverty and hunger and improve child and maternal health depends on the long-term availability of fresh water, food, medicine and raw materials that nature provides.
This is also recalled in the 2010 MDG report, in the EU policy framework to assist developing countries in addressing food security challenges, and in the Commission’s Policy Coherence for Development work programme 2010-2013, which includes a specific target for biodiversity and accompanying indicators as part of the operational framework to enhance the coherence of EU policies with development objectives."@en1
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