Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what target outcomes they have for the UK delegation to the UN COP15 Biodiversity Conference being held in Kunming, China, in April and May.

Biodiversity loss is a global problem that needs a global solution, and the UK is committed to playing a leading role in developing an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity later this year. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, we expect the COP itself to take place in the third quarter of 2022.

The UK will be advocating for ambitious global targets to bend the curve of biodiversity loss by 2030. This includes targets to ensure at least 30% of the land and of the ocean is protected, ecosystems are restored, species population sizes are recovering, and extinctions are halted by 2050. The UK is calling for this ambitious set of targets to be supported by increased finance for nature from all sources (public and private) and at all levels (domestic and international), and for strengthened reporting and review mechanisms to facilitate the achievement of targets and hold Parties to account to their commitments.