Question reference: S5W-32306
- Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 5 October 2020
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Current status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, which was launched at a virtual UN event on 28 September 2020 and signed by the Prime Minister on behalf of the UK Government; what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding this pledge and the commitments it contains, and how it will ensure that Scotland delivers its proportion of the commitments.
Answer
The Scottish Government is pleased to note the ambition of those State Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to commit to taking positive action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and to recognise the links between biodiversity loss and the global climate emergency, as set out in the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature. The UN Summit on Biodiversity in September is part of the lead in to the CBD Conference of the Parties 15 to be held in China in 2021, when a new, post-2020, global framework for biodiversity, and associated targets, is due to be agreed.
Biodiversity is a devolved matter and, while we will continue to discuss biodiversity objectives and targets, including those agreed internationally, and work collaboratively with colleagues in the other devolved administrations and the UK Government where that is sensible, it is for the Scottish Ministers to determine Scotland’s biodiversity strategy, plans and priorities. This will include Scotland’s national response to the new global biodiversity framework.
The Leaders’ Pledge for Nature strongly aligns with Scottish Government priorities and policies, including commitments to deliver the new global framework, to deliver a green recovery and to address climate change.
Biodiversity loss and the climate emergency cannot be addressed in a fully transformative way without state parties and sub-national governments, cities and local authorities working together and, ideally, with that collaboration formally recognised in international agreements such as the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Throughout this year, the Scottish Government has led the ‘Edinburgh Process’ on behalf of the CBD and with a global network of partners across subnational and local governments, to build a coalition of supportive State Parties to the CBD to call for the Convention to increase its recognition of the role of sub-national governments, cities and local authorities within the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The ‘Edinburgh Declaration’ published in August 2020 calls upon State Parties to recognise this and sets out the commitments of the Scottish Government and international partners to work for nature over the coming decade.