COP15 biodiversity summit: How Scotland is playing its part on world stage to protect nature – Angus Robertson

A piece of good news as we head to the new year: nations have reached a historic deal to protect nature at the COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada.

Steffi Lemke, of Germany, and Steven Guilbeault, of Canada, applaud after the world adopted the 23 new targets at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, COP15, in Montreal (Picture: Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images)

The conference is similar to COP process on climate change, but with the specific focus on the preservation of the natural world and the protection of wildlife.

This year’s conference was of particular importance as a central aim was to deliver a new global agreement. Thankfully the international representatives managed to coalesce around a number of priorities, a real success given the agreement from this year’s COP27 conference in Egypt was considered to be sub-par.

Representing Scotland at the COP15 biodiversity summit was the Scottish Government minister for green skills, circular economy and biodiversity, Lorna Slater MSP. She has been a champion for protecting Scotland’s natural wildlife and, at the summit in Canada, was a key advocate for one of the central successes – a plan to protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and seas by 2030.

We have committed to doing this in Scotland, and we’re making headway already. The Scottish Government is expanding the national park network and, among other things, ensuring the restoration of natural land. We have also committed to creating a new national park in the coming years.

Another key Scottish contribution to protecting the world’s biodiversity is the Edinburgh Declaration. This is a globally recognised commitment of sub-national governments, including cities and local authorities, to meet worldwide biodiversity targets. Recently, the president of the Île-de-France Region, and former French presidential candidate, Valérie Pécresse, signed the Edinburgh Agreement on a visit to Scotland, committing the region – which includes the city of Paris – to global biodiversity targets.

At the COP15 meeting in Canada, a representative of the EU’s Committee of the Regions spoke about the importance of the Edinburgh Declaration to the global fight against climate change. To coincide with that meeting, Highland Council also signed the Edinburgh Declaration, an important milestone showing that the local custodians of a huge portion of Scotland’s natural landscape and wildlife are committed to our country’s natural preservation.

The Highlands is home to the important Flow Country, an area of deep peat, dotted with bog pools, that forms the heart of the Caithness and Sutherland peatlands. Covering about 200,000 hectares, it’s more than twice the size of Orkney and the largest bog of its type in the world. It is also hugely important for absorbing carbon emissions.

The Flow Country has been marked by Unesco as an area of outstanding universal value due to its unique properties and support of wildlife. Campaigners are seeking to upgrade its classification to be a Unesco World Heritage Site, which would mean it joined the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef on a very exclusive list of world-renowned natural sites. The application has already passed the first stage of the process to obtain this important recognition, which would complement the Edinburgh Agreement.

The turn of the year is a good time to revisit our personal and national commitments to fighting climate change and I look forward to working with government colleagues to advance Scotland’s ambitious climate targets.

Angus Robertson is the SNP MSP for Edinburgh Central and Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Secretary