At 3.35am on 19 December 2022 in Montreal, the gavel went down on COP15 negotiations with a new Global Biodiversity Framework being agreed.

Prior to the COP, I had hoped that this would be more than just one more heave and that political leaders would leave motivated to act.

After four years of talks culminating in the most intense final two weeks in Canada, we wanted specific measurable targets, a clear plan for implementation backed up by adequate funding.

By and large, this is what was agreed.  Hallelujah we cried, inspired by Montreal native Leonard Cohen.

It is not perfect, the funding is inadequate and the timeline for implementation unclear but there are measurable targets for protection of land and sea (30% by 2030), for restoration (30% of degraded land), for reducing nutrient and pesticide pollution (to be halved) and perverse incentives (to be reduced by US$ 500 billion per year).

While we failed to secure quantifiable targets for species conservation (merely a commitment to significantly reduce extinction risk), the new plan gives a very clear signal to both governments and business (who were in Montreal in big numbers) about what they need to do next: transpose these targets into action at pace.

So with just 8 years left in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the message to all is implementation, implementation, implementation.  The BirdLife partnership – many of who played such a brilliant role in these talks – are here to help make this happen.

You read further BirdLife reaction here.