2020 is being widely referred to as the “Super Year” for nature. Over the course of the year world leaders will meet to agree on new and ambitious global targets for biodiversity and climate, and to measure progress against the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Coalition will have a presence at many of these events, where we’ll be working to ensure that the value of nature and people inform the discussions at these critical global meetings and negotiations.
One of these events is the IUCN World Conservation Congress. Held once every four years, the Congress brings together several thousand leaders and decision-makers from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, business, and academia, with the goal of conserving the environment and harnessing the solutions nature offers to global challenges.
We’ve partnered with dozens of leading organizations to deliver a broad program of activities that will take place over the congress.
Firstly, the Post-2020 Pavilion. Led by WWF, the Pavilion brings together 25 diverse partners, including Google Earth, IIED, IUCN, National Geographic, UNDP, UNEP, WBCSD and the We Mean Business Coalition. Over 6 days, the Pavilion will curate 24 sessions which aim to:
- Support and advocate for the adoption of an effective and ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework at the CBD COP15 in China, that is fit for purpose to truly address the ‘nature emergency’;
- Trigger necessary global systemic and transformative changes to address governance and market failures leading to biodiversity loss; and to deliver actions to halt and begin to reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030 and bring about full recovery by 2050.
We have also partnered with IUCN, UNEP-WCMC and Fauna & Flora International to curate a Business and Nature Hub. The Hub will run a program of morning breakfast briefings, workshops, launch events and social events, and will provide a meeting space for business, conservation and civil society organisations, governments and others to come together to discuss opportunities for partnership and collaboration.
Through Business for Nature, we are also working to develop the Congress’ first CEO Summit. The CEO Summit will feature a dynamic dialogue with industry leaders and IUCN constituencies, including representatives from government and NGOs, exploring the steps business can take to accelerate the transformation to a sustainable society. It is also an opportunity for businesses to issue an urgent call to action to governments; encouraging them to create the policies needed to enable this journey and inspire business to do more.
The CEO Summit will take place in the morning of June 15th, and will run into the One Planet Summit which is hosted by the French Government and will take place in the afternoon of the 15th.
Early bird rates for the Congress end on 11 March, and you can register here.
