AQW 3392/22-27

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 22/09/2022
Answered On Date: 14/10/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what plans his Department has made to ensure Northern Ireland’s participation in COP15 in October 2022.

Answer:

The second part of COP15, the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, will now take place 7-19 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada. A new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to safeguard nature will be finalised and adopted at the conference, setting outcome goals and related action targets to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and achieve the 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature”.

DEFRA leads for the UK at the pre-COP working groups, with support from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the advisor to the Government on nature conservation. There is ongoing liaison between DEFRA, my officials and other devolved administrations to formulate the proposed UK position at COP15.

My officials are awaiting further details on the programme of events and UK representation at the conference.