The EU aims to become the world champion of biodiversity with the European Biodiversity Strategy 2030, and its 2030 targets for biodiversity are set to be adopted at the Biodiversity Summit in Kunming, China in October 2021. The question is whether the EU will succeed in this ambition with the biodiversity policy and the diplomatic actions it is taking. This article answers this question by examining the international agreements there are in the field of biodiversity, how the EU acts in this regard, and where the challenges lie for the EU, especially in the run-up to the Conference of the Parties on Biodiversity in Kunming this year.

The Conference of the Parties (COPs) has its existence in the establishment of the “Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)”. The CBD is a pact that world leaders made in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 with the aim of preserving the earth's ecological base in combination with economic development. Although several international agreements already existed in the field of nature, the "Convention on Biological Diversity" was the first treaty to deal with the entire diversity of life forms. So far, 193 parties have acceded to the treaty. The Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity meet every two years during so-called Conferences of Parties (COPs). During Conferences of the Parties, further agreements are made about the elaboration of certain parts of the Convention on Biodiversity (The Convention on Biological Diversity, 2017; History of the Convention, 2021). The CBD has three main objectives: conservation of biological diversity, its sustainable use, and fair distribution of the benefits of using genetic resources. In accordance with Article 6 of the Convention, Parties have to develop national biodiversity strategies or action plans (NBSAPs) (The Convention on Biological Diversity, n.d.).

 In the years after 1992 it turned out that, despite the CBD, biodiversity was still declining. That is why in 2010, during the COP in Nagoya, Japan, additional agreements were made with the Nagoya Protocol, the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi Targets in order to prevent further loss of biodiversity in the future (Aichi Biodiversity Targets, 2020; Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 including Aichi Biodiversity Targets, (2020). 

 A very important moment in international biodiversity policy is the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) – the biggest biodiversity conference in a decade – which is scheduled to take place in Kunming, China in October 2021 (Directorate-General for Environment, n.d.-b; European Commission - Directorate-General for Environment, 2020). This summit is seen as just as important for biodiversity as the Paris summit was for climate in 2015 (EEAS - Strategic Communications, 2021). 

 The overall aim of the COP15 is that during this meeting a global biodiversity framework for the period after 2020 is adopted as a stepping stone towards the 2050 Vision 'Living in harmony with nature'. In order to arrive at this global biodiversity framework, the COP15 negotiation process was aligned with Decision 14/34, at the 14th COP meeting in November 2018 in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt. (Decision Adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2018). The negotiations are largely taking place in the Open-ended Intersessional Working Group (OEWG), which includes all members of the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity, n.d.; Palmer, 2019).

 On July 12, 2021, the Secretariat of the CBD presented the First Draft of The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. This concept framework will be further refined during the online negotiations in the late summer of 2021 in the run-up to COP15. The framework is a fundamental contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is built around a Theory of Change. One of the main goals will be to conserve at least 30% of the world's land and marine areas (particularly areas of particular importance for biodiversity and its contributions to humans) (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2021a; Convention on Biological Diversity, 2021b).

EU biodiversity policy has a certain history. The EU's first real biodiversity strategy appeared in 1998, with commitments of the heads of State and Government at the EU Spring Council 2001 and the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002 to halt the decline of biodiversity loss. However, the 2004 Malahide conference concluded that the biodiversity loss continued in alarming rates and that additional efforts were needed to achieve the 2010 targets. In 2010, the targets were not achieved, after which the Biodiversity Strategy 2020 was adopted by the European Union in 2011 (Directorate-General for Environment, n.d.-c).

The Biodiversity Strategy 2020 aimed to end the halt biodiversity loss in the EU, restore ecosystems as much as possible and make additional efforts to prevent global biodiversity loss by 2020. The strategy was in line with the commitments made by EU leaders in March 2010 and the international commitments adopted by 193 countries, including the EU and all its Member States, in the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010 (European Commission, 2011). 

The results of the Biodiversity Strategy 2020 are not yet known at the moment, because the European Commission is still evaluating the strategy. The European Commission has indicated that it will look at effectiveness, efficiency, coherence with other policies, relevance and EU added value. A stakeholder consultation will be part of the evaluation. The European Commission is expected to publish its report on the evaluation somewhere in 2021, together with a synthesis of the results of the stakeholder consultations (Directorate-General for Environment, n.d.-a).

 In the meantime, the report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), at the invitation of the CBD, was published in 2019, stating that the state of biodiversity is still disastrous. IPBES warns in the report about the mass extinction of plant and animal species as a result of human activity. IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body (not a United Nations body) established by States to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development. It was established in Panama City, on 21 April 2012 by 94 Governments (Brondizio et al., 2019; IPBES, n.d.).

Although the evaluation of the Biodiversity Strategy 2020 is yet to be published, on 20 May 2020 the European Commission presented the EU 2030 Biodiversity Strategy (as part of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy, unveiled on 20 May too). The biodiversity strategy 2030 is European Union’s contribution to the international negotiations on the global post-2020 biodiversity framework (Halleux, 2021). With this strategy, the EU focuses on two main strands of actions. First, the strategy proposes to widen the EU network of protected areas to transform at least 30% of Europe's lands and seas into effectively managed protected areas, with 10% of them strictly protected. Second, the strategy sets legally binding restoration targets to be put forward in 2021, as well as a request to Member States to ensure that there is no deterioration in conservation trends and status under existing legislation (Nègre, 2020). 

The European Union has been an official member of the CBD since 1994, as have the individual EU member states. Because the EU is not a country, international agreements need to be ratified by the Council, the European Parliament and individual Member States. Negotiations take place before any agreements are signed. Internal EU policy coordination on these negotiations is done by the Environment Council. All members of the negotiating team – the Commission or the Member States – are part of this Environment Council. To facilitate the work between EU and Member State diplomats, the Green Diplomacy Network (GDN) was established in June 2003. This network facilitates information gathering and cooperation on environmental issues (Missiroli, 2016). The Network consists of officials dealing with international environment and sustainable development issues in the EU's Ministries of Foreign Affairs and their diplomatic missions, including the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the EU Delegations. Since January 2012, the Network has been chaired by the EEAS (Directorate-General for Environment, n.d.-d). The GDN works in a coordinated way to implement EU priorities and/or organize outreach through events, seminars, public diplomacy actions and official démarches, as fostered in particular through the Climate and Energy Diplomacy Conclusions of 2020 and 2021 (Strategic Communications, 2021). GDN's work largely takes place behind the scenes, but it can be assumed that the European Biodiversity Policy is leading in GDN's assignment.

The EU's aim is for its biodiversity 2030 targets to be adopted at the CBD COP15 (Nègre, 2020). An important place to provide input for the negotiations towards COP15 is the OEWG. The EU is part of the OEWG with two delegates, just like the individual Member States. The OEWG reports show that input is provided from both the EU and individual Member States, within the group 'Western European and Other groups and Other Members of the European Union', which also includes countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Turkey to be part of (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2019). The global results of the discussion can be found in public reports, but not the input of the individual parties. (POST2020-WS-2019-02 - Documents, n.d.). Although the EEAS website states that the EU biodiversity actions are in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 15 to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), it is unclear whether, and if so in what way, the EEAS and Josep Borrell as High Representative are committed to biodiversity and the EU's 2030 Biodiversity Strategy (EEAS, 2021).

The European Commission (EC) has clearly stated in the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy that biodiversity should be integrated into bilateral and multilateral commitments, through the EU's Green Deal diplomacy and the future Green Alliances (European Commission - Directorate-General for Environment, 2020). In the run-up to the summit, the EC launched ‘An advocacy toolkit on biodiversity’ in May 2021, in which it outlines that the EU will negotiate for several elements of the framework as a minimum. This means overarch global goals for biodiversity for 2050 that will aim for all the world's ecosystems to be restored, resilient, and adequately protected, ambitious global 2030 targets in line with EU commitments in the EU Biodiversity Strategy, such as the protection of at least 30% of land and 30% of the seas globally and sustainable use and management of the remaining 70%. The targets should clearly address the drivers of biodiversity loss. The EC also wants a much stronger implementation, monitoring and review process and an enabling framework to bring the ambition to life, across areas such as finance, capacity, research, innovation and technology (European Commission, 2021; Directorate-General for Environment, n.d.-e).

In addition to the toolkit, the EC is undertaking various other actions at international level in the run-up to COP15, such as the Global Coalition United for Biodiversity, bringing together over 250 institutions from more than 50 countries around the world calling for stronger mobilisation in raising awareness about protecting biodiversity (Directorate-General for Environment, n.d.-f; EEAS, 2021). The EU and its Member States, except for Poland, have also signed the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, which was launched during last year's UN General Assembly, and by doing so committed to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 (Leaderspledgefornature, 2021).

The European Commission has joined the intergovernmental High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People (Directorate-General for Environment, n.d.-e ). The HAC is an intergovernmental group of 60 countries championing a global deal for nature and people with the central goal of protecting at least 30 percent of world's land and ocean by 2030. The 30x30 target is a global target which aims to halt the accelerating loss of species, and protect vital ecosystems that are the source of our economic security (High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, n.d.).

 On 26 February 2021, the European Commission and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) signed an agreement establishing a stronger focus on promoting the circular economy, protecting biodiversity and fighting pollution (Directorate-General for Environment, 2021a). Also, on April 27 2021, the 8th EU-China Ministerial Environment Policy Dialogue took place, in which Commissioner Sinkevicius and Mr Huang Runqiu, China's Minister for Ecology and Environment have exchange views on the preparations and desirable outcomes for a successful COP15 and update each other on concrete actions at domestic level (Directorate-General for Environment, 2021). 

The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution, on 9 June 2021, in which she called on the Commission to submit in 2022 a proposal for a legally binding biodiversity governance framework (Haahr, 2021). This 'biodiversity law' (counterpart of the European climate law) should steer a path to 2050 through a set of objectives, including targets for 2030 and the COP15 commitments, and should establish a monitoring mechanism with smart indicators, within and beyond protected areas (Halleux, 2021). The European Parliament also emphasized the potential of using green diplomacy, trade policy and multilateral action to promote the protection of biodiversity outside of Europe. It also expressed its support for the ‘UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration’ (2021-2031) and called on the Commission and the Member States to effectively integrate the protection of the environment and biodiversity in all external action (European Parliament, 2021).

The 2030 biodiversity strategy was drawn up without the effects of the previous strategy being known and although the European Commission has drawn up a whole package of diplomatic measures, it is unclear to which specific goals the Green Diplomacy Network is currently committed. Morgera (2010) already emphasized in 2010 that the EU bases its policy too much on assumptions rather than facts. She writes that there is a problematic “implementation gap”. On the one hand there is the continuous lack of compliance with and enforcement of EU environmental law by the Member States, on the other hand there is an “appalling” lack of data on the environment, in particular lack of ex-post evaluation of effectiveness of existing measures. The fact that the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 has been drawn up despite the fact that the results of the Biodiversity Strategy 2020 are not yet available shows that Morgera's (2010) warning in 2010 is still valid.

Burgass et al. (2020) write that it is essential in post-2020 biodiversity policy that the focus is not only on what needs to be done, but also on how it must be done. They argue for measurable steps such as a Theory of Change approach, so that there is a transparent framework that helps parties to implement the general vision of the CBD. In the recently published framework by the CBD, which will be discussed at the end of the summer, the Theory of Change is also the starting point, which means that concrete goals have been identified (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2021a). The question is whether these goals are concrete enough and whether they will remain intact in the negotiations so that they can form the basis for the discussion during COP15.

The EU's 2030 Biodiversity Strategy sets a number of targets but is not a binding legislative instrument, which means that it is ultimately up to the Member States to give substance to the objectives of the Biodiversity Strategy. This might become a problem because, like Isarin, (2018) stresses, there is a continuous lack of compliance with and enforcement of EU environmental law by the Member States. Having concrete objectives is one thing, actually achieving them is up to the member states themselves. And they may well be the main limiting factor, given the increasing political polarization in Europe and between Member States (Grabbe & Lehne, 2019). 

In the preparation for COP15 it is unclear whether all EU Member States are on the same page in the negotiations by the OEWG. In this OEWG, input is given by various people speaking on behalf of both the EU and the individual Member States, but it is unclear what the role of the Green Diplomacy Network, and therefore also the EEAS, is. Although the EC is taking action towards COP15, such as the advocacy toolkit, the HAC and the diplomatic talks with China, it is also unclear what the role of the EEAS is in this. 

It is hopeful that the objective of the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy to transform at least 30% of Europe's lands and seas into effectively managed protected areas, with 10% of them strictly protected is also reflected in the advocacy toolkit of the EC, the objectives of the intergovernmental High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People. The 30% is also mentioned in the recently presented First Draft of The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework by the Secretariat of the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2021b). However it is still unclear how individual Member States feel about this and whether the EU will success in speaking with one voice at COP15.

Pattberg et al. (2019) indicate that the experiences gained in climate policy should be translated into biodiversity policy, and that it is important that decisions are taken bottom-up. The policy letter from Kok et al. (2018) also advocates that insights gained from the Paris Agreement be used for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Climate policy, especially the conclusion of the Paris Agreement in 2015, is internationally regarded as a great success, because for the first time it has really been possible to make binding agreements with all countries (United Nations Climate Change, n.d.). It is hopeful that on 9 June the European Parliament has explicitly declared itself in favour of a 'biodiversity law' as a counterpart of the European climate law (Haahr, 2021). 

Over the years, there has been increasing awareness of the importance of biodiversity policy at an international level, as evidenced by the many agreements that have been made on the COPs, the policy documents that have been drawn up and creating the Green Diplomacy Network. However, despite all these actions, the state of biodiversity is still disastrous, as shown by the 2019 IPBES report. All arrows are now focused on the COP15 in Kunming. This COP should mean the turnaround in global biodiversity policy. 

Biodiversity policy has been characterized for too long by being non-committal, because no clear impact measurements and concrete objectives have been drawn up. It is true that biodiversity is now one of the priorities within the EU Green Deal, but without concrete objectives and measurable targets, too little will change. Fortunately, there has been a growing awareness of the need to act more on facts than on assumptions in biodiversity policy in recent times, as evidenced by European Parliament resolutions. To become the global leader in biodiversity, the EU will need to take the same steps as in climate policy. In concrete terms, this means that there should be a biodiversity law, modelled on the climate law and the Paris climate agreement, and that this should be part of the advocacy toolkit and the assignment to the Green Diplomacy Network, so that it is eventually embraced by the CBD. However, there will not be an EU biodiversity law in the short term, and certainly not before the start of the important biodiversity summit in Kunming in October 2021. That does not mean that, even if the EU is not yet a global leader in biodiversity, this summit is meaningless from the outset. The summit can succeed if all global parties, in accordance with the climate agreement in Paris in 2015, unite 'en masse' behind concrete goals as formulated in the First Draft of The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, based on the Theory of Change. Whether this framework will be adopted will only become clear during the COP15 and for the EU it will be especially exciting whether all EU Member States will vote unanimously during the COP15.

It would have been wise if the EU had given biodiversity a clear place in foreign policy under the EEAS, so that there would be less uncertainty about the European contribution at global level. The COP15 in Kunming is therefore not only important for setting ambitious global biodiversity targets, but it is also a stress test whether the EU should reconsider the deployment and organization of the Green Diplomacy Network and the role of the EEAS in the field of biodiversity. 

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