During the Geneva talks on a Paris-type agreement on nature, which expired this week, the use of genetic data in digital form – known as digital sequence information (DSI) – emerged as a clear dividing line with African countries. to insist The agreement must include an economic mechanism to compensate for discoveries that use digital forms of their biodiversity. Echoing tensions in climate talks over the failure of developed countries to achieve the $ 100 billion-a-year climate funding target at Cop26 in Glasgow, a large group of developing countries, including Brazil, India and He also called on rich nations to pledge more than $ 100 billion (75 75 billion) a year in biodiversity funding from public and private sources at this year’s Cop15 summit in Kunming, reaching $ 700 billion by 2030. Q&A
What is the Kunmin Biodiversity Conference?
projection At Cop15 – the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity – Governments will negotiate new biodiversity conservation targets for this decade. The agreement, “a Paris Agreement on Nature”, aims to slow down the rampant loss of biodiversity around the world and is part of the UN’s general plan that humanity should live in harmony with nature by 2050. The summit The summit was originally scheduled to take place in October 2020, but after several delays, we hope that a face-to-face meeting will take place in 2022. Why is it a big deal?The time to take action is over. An international team of scientists, including Professor Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, warned in January 2021 that the planet was facing a “terrible future of mass extinction, declining health and climate change” threatening human survival. The world has failed to achieve a single goal agreed a decade ago to stop the destruction of wildlife and ecosystems that sustain life. Are only governments concerned?No. At the 2021 World Economic Forum, business leaders said biodiversity loss was the third largest existential or long-term threat to the world and was among the top five risks in terms of impact, along with infectious diseases, climate change failure, disasters of mass destruction and natural resources. What might the Kunming deal look like?In January 2021, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity published a draft 21-point agreement. It commits signatories to protecting at least 30% of the planet, controlling invasive species and reducing plastic waste and nutrient pollution by 50%. Governments have not yet properly negotiated the draft targets. Thank you for your response. The disagreement erupted after a slow fortnight of negotiations in Switzerland, which, despite progress in some areas, left the ambition of the overall agreement in balance. Top conservationists said the talks were moving at a “snail pace” and further talks were scheduled for late June in Nairobi to prepare for the Cop15 in China. From the development of Covid vaccines to the production of sweeteners, the genetic sequences of plants, animals and other organisms in digital form have revolutionized biotechnology and life science research, leading to new HIV therapies, genetically modified crops and conservation innovations. The sharing of the Sars-CoV-2 genetic code in early 2020 led to the rapid development of tests and vaccines for Covid-19. It is hoped that similar techniques will lead to new anti-cancer drugs and other innovations in various fields. But during this week’s talks, countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean warned that DSI had become a window for pharmaceutical companies and others to avoid sharing profits from flora, fauna and other forms. their life – what has become known as piracy. Sharing the benefits of genetic resources is one of the three objectives of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), through which governments negotiate a Paris-type agreement on nature, known as the Global Biodiversity Framework, with draft objectives for 30% protection of land and sea, reduction of agricultural pollution and environmentally harmful subsidies. Pierre du Plessis, a Namibian negotiator speaking on Africa, said that without a DSI agreement he would not allow the whole deal to be approved, warning that the Cop15 at Kunming could become a “Copenhagen moment” for biodiversity. , in a reference to when in 2009 Climate talks in the Danish capital collapsed. “From an African perspective, we will not accept the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework [without agreement on DSI]. “It’s just a horrible result to think about, but if we have to do it, then we will do it,” Du Plessis said. Africa has proposed a 1% contribution to biodiversity at the retail price of all products based on genetic resources and DSIs, with revenues available for biodiversity conservation worldwide. The idea is likely to face significant opposition from the EU, Canada and other rich countries. Edgar Guanga, a farmer, puts a plant sample in scientists to extract DNA from it as part of the Barcode Galapagos project in Ecuador. Photo: Dolores Ochoa / AP An agreement on the procedures to be followed when requesting the use of genetic information, known as the Nagoya Protocol, has already entered into force amid concerns that companies were commercializing domestic knowledge and genetic resources for nothing. But not all countries have ratified the agreement and are allowed to set their own rules, which means the DSI has become a gray area. At Tuesday’s closing plenary, the countries signed an agreement involving further negotiations on the DSI, which Du Plessis welcomed, but said there was a long way to go, amid fears that scientific and commercial research could get involved in bureaucracy. if the issue is not resolved. Leonardo de Athayde, head of Brazil’s negotiating team, said the DSI was an important issue for his country that should be included in the final text. “We are open to considering different options, as long as it generates money and provides incentives for the sustainable use of biodiversity,” he said. Other states have warned that without an agreement in Kunming, access to biodiversity in their country for scientific and commercial research would face increased bureaucracy. Dr Amber Hartman Scholz, a researcher at the Leibniz DSMZ Institute and a leading expert on DSI, said that what was agreed in China should be simple, while maintaining free and open access to scientific research around the world. DSI is currently maintained in three major databases in Japan, Europe and the USA. “The changes that molecular biological data are going to bring to our lives in the coming decades – cancer drugs, personalized medicine, whatever nature interacts with humans – are all based on sequence data. “It will blow our minds for the next 100 years,” he said. “Sharing the benefits of DSI is fair, but paralyzing science with bureaucracy is not,” said Hartmann Solts. “We have to do it right.” Li Shuo, a policy adviser for Greenpeace China, said the DSI had highlighted “some of the deepest ideological differences between the CBD parties”. “It’s a scientifically and legally complex issue and it is closely linked to economics. With limited progress in Geneva, there are already too many bombs to remove the Kunming. “The DSI is definitely one of the thorns that will trigger a series of explosions if we do not manage it carefully,” he said. 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