[ Recorded webcast ]

At this kickoff event for the Rio Conventions Pavilion (RCP), held in the evening of 10 May, the UNCCD COP 15 President together with high level representatives from China, Egypt, and the United Kingdom and the secretariats of the three Rio Conventions, will explore synergies in global efforts to combat land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss, with specific focus on UNCCD COP15, CBD COP15 and UNFCCC COP27, and will outline their ambitions and expectations about how the coordinated actions of the three Conventions contribute to preserve nature's legacy for the generations to come.

Objectives

• Promote high-level political attention to synergies and complementarity in the implementation of the Rio Conventions
• highlight some of the key outcomes/issues that have been / will be addressed by other thematic sessions of the RCP at COP 15
• Emphasize importance of integrated approaches at global and national levels in the implementation of the Rio Conventions towards their overlapping objectives
• Outline the key areas for joint action under each Convention’s process, the financing objectives for the GEF, and raise ambition that can be translated into concrete actions.

Key messages

• The Rio Conventions address three facets of a single global sustainability challenge emanating from the manner in which we produce and consume nature’s bounty;
• The GEF and a strong GEF-8 replenishment will be essential to the achievement of the objectives of the Paris Agreement, post-2020 global biodiversity framework, land degradation neutrality and the SDGs;
• The three Rio Conventions serve as multilateral instruments to help guide countries in developing national plans for achieving their development priorities for current and future generations;
• During the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, a number of key action areas focused on land restoration must be advanced under each convention process in a coordinated way.

Agenda

18:30 - 19:30

Welcome and subsequent introductions by the moderator
Moderator: Ms. Gabriele Lipton, GLF

Question from Moderator and answers from:

• Elizabeth Mrema, CBD Executive Secretary;
• Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, GEF CEO and Chairperson;
• Usha Rao-Monari, Under-Secretary-General and UN Development Programme (UNDP) Associate Administrator;
• Julian Wright, Senior Advisor for Climate Change, Environment Agency, UK;
• Jigmet Takpa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, India;
• Nahla Noobi, Acting Head of Terrestrial Biodiversity, Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, United Arab Emirates (UAE); and
• Florika Fink-Hooijer, Director General, Environment, European Commission

Sum-up by the moderator
Moderator: Gabriele Lipton, GLF

Official opening of the Rio Convention Pavilion
Andrea Meza Murillo, Deputy Executive Secretary, UNCCD

Cocktail

Selected photos

All photos by: IISD/ENB | Matthew TenBruggencate
Source: https://enb.iisd.org/rio-conventions-pavilion-unccd-cop15/10-may-2022