After a year’s delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) convened virtually to advance the preparations for the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15), currently scheduled to take place in October 2021 in Kunming, China.

SBSTTA-24 built on the work of the informal lead-up meeting in February 2021, where participants had the opportunity to comment on the documents prepared for each agenda item. SBSTTA-24 aimed to adopt conference room papers (CRPs) on the following agenda items:

• The post-2020 global biodiversity framework
• Synthetic biology
• Risk assessment and risk management of living modified organisms (LMOs)
• Marine and coastal biodiversity
• Biodiversity and agriculture
• Programme of work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
• Biodiversity and health
• Invasive alien species

Each agenda item was first presented in plenary. The formal first reading of each agenda item took into account and built upon the statements and submissions made at the informal meeting. Following first readings, contact groups met virtually between plenary sessions to negotiate based on non-papers and CRPs prepared by the Chair with support from the Secretariat. 

Priority was given to items directly related to the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. These items were addressed early in the meeting since they needed to be completed by the end of May 2021 to inform development of the first draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and be ready for the third meeting of the Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, tentatively scheduled for August 2021.

Plenaries convened 3-4 May, 23-26 May, and 7-9 June. Sessions lasted three hours, from 7:00 – 10:00 am Montreal time (GMT-4). Adoption of final draft decision documents (L documents) was deferred until an in-person meeting can be held, unless the Bureau decides otherwise.

IISD, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, provided daily web updates of the plenary sessions and a summary and analysis following the closure of SBSTTA-24. The summary report will be available on this site on Monday, 14 June 2021.

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