Why in news? India Propagated for new biodiversity fund for helping developing countries successfully implement a post-2020 global framework to halt and reverse biodiversity loss at COP-15 biodiversity conference in Montreal

Highlights

• India conveyed that conservation of biodiversity must also be based on common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR) as climate change also impacts nature
• Demand for new fund is because the existing multilateral sources are not up to the task of meeting the requirements
• Source of finance
• Global Environment Facility caters to multiple conventions
• It includes the UNFCCC and UN Convention to Combat Desertification, remains the only source of funding for biodiversity conservation.
• The parties trying to achieve a consensus on eliminating subsidies that are harmful to the environment, such as subsidies for fossil fuel production, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, by at least $500 billion annually and using this money for biodiversity conservation

What is the cause of concern?

• Developing countries bear the burden of implementing the targets for conservation of biodiversity, therefore require funds and technology transfer from developed countries.
• There have been repeated calls for the inclusion of the CBDR principle in finance-related targets for Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) Conservation
• Applying the CBDR principle to biodiversity conservation has not been straightforward as compared to climate negotiations and there is repeated disagreements between the global north and south.

What is Common But Differentiated Responsibilities?

• Origin of concept : “common concern” in Convention for the Establishment of an Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission of 1949 and “common heritage of mankind” in United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982
• All states have shared obligation to address environmental destruction but denies equal responsibility of all states with regard to environmental protection.
• Formalized: UNFCCC of Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992.
• First international legal instrument to address negative impacts to global environment
• Based on relationship between industrialization and climate change.
• More industrialized a country is, the more likely that it has contributed to climate change.
• The principle could be based on the polluter-pays principle