COP15 Youth dismayed by the lack of ambition in the negotiations

An action to denounce the death of the living

“With only 3 days left before the end of COP15, there are still 700 brackets, as many elements of the text that still do not have consensus. We are concerned about the attempts to dilute the ambitions and the lack of progress in the discussions. If we cannot be ambitious in a non-binding text, when will we be? Life is between brackets. So is our future”. Alice Jacobée, GYBN member and Environment Master’s student.

Here, at COP15, the diversity of life is suspended between brackets. Indeed, the Parties must find consensus to remove these brackets and keep a maximum ambition in this international conference.

The youth, represented by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), will lay on the fifth floor of the Palais des Congrès at noon on Friday, December 16, around a young girl, standing among the crowd of bracketed faces. In her hands, a sign: “3 days left and still 700 brackets #Nomorebrackets”.

The sum of portraits exhibits a part of the diversity of the living, suspended by the slowness of the negotiations. It also reminds us that humans are part of biodiversity.

Through this action, the GYBN asks the political decision makers for concrete actions to save biodiversity. “At the dawn of the 6th mass extinction and at the speed at which species are disappearing, it is urgent to act. In Canada, as abroad, many species are already threatened by extinction.” Frédérick Chir, conservation specialist. 

This is a crucial COP because the Aïchi objectives that governments had set at previous conferences have not been reached and there is a lot of catching up to do. The text that is supposed to be adopted during this conference will give the main lines of the global framework for the next 10 years.

Since December 6th, young people from all over the world have been meeting and mobilizing at the UN Conference on Biodiversity, COP15, to influence stakeholders on the new biodiversity protection targets. 

The GYBN network brings together youth from around the world to fight biodiversity loss at all levels.

For Virgil Noël, GYBN member and biology student, “Youth are building their future today and are the first to be affected by the consequences of the global biodiversity framework currently being negotiated. If governments are not prepared to assume their responsibilities, young people will continue to remind them.”