Backed by philanthropical funders, the 116 nations in the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC) are restructuring the group’s governance system to better equip it to help nations implement the Kunming-Montreal Agreement on biodiversity.
Just hours after delegates from 196 nations agreed on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in Montreal, HAC announced it was taking immediate steps to ensure it will be able to play a critical role in the implementation process.
“The Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Rainforest Trust – on behalf of the Protecting Our Planet Challenge (POP), a $5 billion commitment to protect and conserve 30% of the planet by 2030 – pledged $3 million over the next three years to support the HAC 2.0 governance,” it said in an announcement.
“It will launch a critical new implementation phase of the Coalition to help sustain political commitment and engagement, implement conservation plans, support capacity building and knowledge sharing, orchestrate technical assistance, and mobilise resources to achieve 30×30 targets around the world,” it said.
Formed in Jan. 2021 to advocate for the global 30×30 target, HAC 2.0 will now focus on putting the Kunming-Montreal Agreement into practice, in order to avoid a repeat of the 2010 Aichi targets, which were all missed by the global community.
It is co-chaired by four ministers from Costa Rica, France, and the UK, with an International Steering Committee comprised of ministers from Australia, Chile, Colombia, Gabon, Japan, Maldives, Nigeria, Norway, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, and the US.
In Montreal, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) signed MOUs to act as future hosts for the group.
“Resource mobilisation from all sources is strongly required for the effective implementation of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. I congratulate the extraordinary commitment of philanthropists with the HAC 2.0 that will have an enormous contribution in the achievement of the 30×30 commitment by 2030 and it is already strengthening the involvement of sectors as new partners of the coalition,” said Franz Tattenback, Costa Rica’s environment and energy minister.
The coalition also stressed it would continue its existing partnership with Indigenous peoples and local communities as representatives in HAC 2.0, “recognising the crucial role that they play in safeguarding nature and the importance of ensuring that protected and conserved areas align with human rights and wellbeing for peoples as well as biodiversity”.
By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com
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