Gowling WLG, corporate partner at our CBI Midlands Business Dinner 2025, looks at some of the key takeaways from the major environmental conferences of 2024 and considers the growing importance of commercial voices in environmental matters.
In the coming year, environmental risks will almost certainly worsen. The prospect of increasing short-term concerns, coupled with the geopolitical climate, could influence the commercial world to take a larger step forward as advocates for commercial action. 2024 saw four major international efforts to secure agreement on a range of environmental matters but negotiations were not as successful as had been hoped earlier in the year.
1. The 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP16)
The first meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) since reaching agreement on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15 in 2022 took place in Cali, Colombia in October 2024. The Framework set parties four ambitious goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030 - the details of which are summarised in our article on how global agreements, nature markets and corporate disclosure can help protect and enhance the natural world.
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