The COP on Biodiversity takes place every 2 years. In 2022, it resulted in an agreement on the Global Framework for Biodiversity, which sets targets for signatory countries to protect biodiversity by 2030 and 2050. The aim of COP 2024 will be to establish an operational framework for the monitoring of member states’ progress towards these targets. This will include a regular reassessment of the targets and progress, and the setting of a timetable for future meetings. The challenge will also be to mobilise resources, particularly financial and technical resources, to ensure that the Kunming-Montreal agreement targets are met.

Waste management is essential for public health, improving living conditions and protecting biodiversity. Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of waste helps to limit the impact of this sector on ecosystems and living organisms, in particular through:

• improved collection to prevent waste, particularly plastics and microplastics, from leaking into the environment, both on land and at sea;
• the availability and improvement of final disposal facilities everywhere and for everyone, in order to reduce soil, air and water pollution, for example by closing uncontrolled, uncovered landfills without leachate treatment in favour of engineered landfill that comply with the Basel Convention’s ESM of waste;
• Prevention, the first lever in the waste treatment hierarchy, which reduces waste generation and the use of natural resources, thereby helping to reduce human pressure on ecosystems, fauna and flora.

FSWP participation

Through its participation in COP17 (remotely or in person), the FSWP will continue to highlight and emphasise the intrinsic links between waste and resource management and biodiversity conservation. It will push for the implementation of the Global Push initiative, which aims to break down silos and work towards a truly holistic and systemic approach to management. Indeed, it is only through coordinated, cross-sectoral work that we can hope for a decontaminated, defossilised future, where economic growth is decoupled from resource extraction and the well-being of living organisms.
More information on the FSWP’s participation to come.