IPBES Meeting - 19 April

Will we have an IPBES? Things look after the fourth day of negotiations rather problematic. The representatives fail to make progress on central issues, and only slowly come to agreement on those of minor importance. However, a system with two subsidiary bodies for respectively dealing with the administrative and scientific functions of the platform was agreed; an executive body and a multidisciplinary expert panel (MEP). After that, everything went into a grid lock over the question on how the MEP where to be populated. It was not possible to finally agree what should be meant by “geographical representation” and whether all “regions” have the same number of representatives. The evening included an exiting vote on where the secretariat of IBPES should be located. In the final round (after elimination of India, France and Kenya), Germany and Bonn won over South Korea and Seoul with 47 votes compared to 43. In order to establish IPBES at the end of this meeting, there is need for a small miracle as many issues are not resolved.

Bege Jonsson