Biodiversity Summit in Montreal: what is the US doing in the forum of this international convention that it has not ratified?

A bright mural on biodiversity from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), this Monday in Montreal (Canada). ANDREJ IVANOV (AFP)

The name of the United States is often conspicuous by its absence from the lists of signatories to international conventions.

The absence may have to do with a certain political agenda, the specific sign of the Government, but also with pressure from large industries for fear of seeing patents and research compromised;

as well as an order of priorities that tends to disdain what is not seen as urgent.

But the refusal to ratify this type of agreement fits badly with Joe Biden's promise to embrace multilateralism again after four years of closure by Donald Trump, especially with regard to the environment.

The example that best illustrates Washington's reluctance to join global initiatives is the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the subject of a UN summit in Montreal, COP15.

Not only because the US's non-ratification tarnishes global efforts to prevent species extinction;

also because, in the opinion of some political analysts, it is detrimental to the credibility and influence of this country in the world.

The usual reason for rejection is the primacy of national interests, but the case of the CBD is especially striking for two reasons: because the US was one of its main promoters in the eighties and because in Montreal it will try to promote one of its objectives, the initiative

to preserve 30% of land and water by 2030. A large US delegation, led by Washington's special envoy for biodiversity and water, Monica Medina, is participating in the meeting, but without a vote.

Although for the moment the refusal to ratify the UN agreement persists, the advances in environmental matters of the Democratic Administration are notable.

In May, the Department of the Interior announced its commitment to the

initiative .

The president decided to restore the historic 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty law, whose objectives were limited by the Trump presidency.

Biden also drives the creation of hundreds of thousands of

hand in hand with the Infrastructure Law, in addition to subsidizing clean energy and the electric car industry.

The return of the United States to the Paris Agreement was the symbol of the multilateral realignment policy, while other cases, such as the biodiversity agreement —which the Holy See has not signed either— remain in an ambiguous limbo.

One of the reasons is that any international treaty must be submitted to a vote in Congress, and the distribution of seats does not usually facilitate the signing.

The parliamentary mechanism known as filibustering requires two-thirds of a total of 100 votes for approval in the Senate, for example.

Since the early 1990s, when the CBD was drafted with significant US input, Republican lawmakers have blocked its ratification on the grounds that it infringes on national sovereignty, jeopardizes commercial interests and poses a financial burden - claims unsubstantiated according to The experts.

It is a big problem that governments treat the extinction crisis and the climate crisis as separate issues

Convincing a sufficient number of Republican senators to ratify the agreement does not seem to be one of the priorities of the Biden Administration, at a time of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Despite his defense of the objective

, few deny that the absence of the United States from the international concert harms the conservation of biodiversity.

“It is shameful that the US is not part of the CBD.

Being the only country that is not part, it demonstrates a lack of commitment to end the extinction crisis.

The United States must adhere to the agreement and commit funds to help protect biodiversity around the world,” says Tierra Curry, a researcher at the Center for Biological Diversity, from Montreal.

“Many scientists and activists are here to urge delegates to commit to stopping extinction immediately, protecting at least 30% of the Earth by 2030, safeguarding and respecting indigenous communities, and curbing plastic and pesticide pollution. .

It is a big problem that governments treat the extinction crisis and the climate crisis as separate issues.

We need to take urgent action on both simultaneously, focusing on issues of justice and supporting indigenous peoples and vulnerable communities," concludes Curry.

Thirty years after the inaugural conference in Rio de Janeiro, the US processing of the CBD, which China, a habitual

, has signed, has run in fits and starts.

In 1992, an election year, then-President George HW Bush refused to sign it under pressure from several senators from his party and from the biotech industry and Big Pharma, who feared they would be forced to share intellectual property with other countries. derived from genetic research, with an incalculable economic return.

The fear that the US would have to help poor countries protect their natural resources also contributed to the rejection.

The winner of the elections that year, Bill Clinton, signed the treaty shortly after arriving at the White House.

But in 1993, when it was time to send it to the Senate, where its approval required 67 votes in favor, he was forced to add seven remarks to explain that its ratification would not harm American companies or force the country to expand its legal corpus on the environment. ambient.

Far from it, he insisted, it implied a loss of sovereignty over natural resources.

None of these precautions convinced the Republican bench, and the text went to the dead end.

Since his presidency, none of his successors have raised the ratification of the CBD again.

Precisely because of Biden's environmental commitment, something more is expected from his Administration in the work of COP15.

“The planet is facing the largest decline in biodiversity in the human era,” says Leda Huta, CEO of the Endangered Species Coalition.

“America cannot stand by while a million species are at risk of disappearing forever.

The Biden Administration must take action—including creating a national biodiversity strategy—to ensure that future generations inhabit a healthy, life-supporting, and species-rich planet.”

From the American continent, voices are also raised to integrate the numerous indigenous communities, as well as environmental activists, who are the object of persecution in many countries of the continent in the defense of biodiversity.

“The Montreal summit is a good opportunity for member states to commit to protecting environmental defenders who play a key role in stewardship of our natural resources.

It is not possible to debate and make decisions about the biodiversity crisis if we do not address the challenges faced by indigenous peoples and front-line communities that fight to protect their territories and natural resources”, says Juliana Bravo Valencia, director of the Earthrights International Amazon Program.

A stick in the wheels of a dozen conventions

In a display of nationalism, the Republicans not only torpedoed the ratification of the biodiversity treaty, but also the additional protocols to the Geneva Convention, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

the Arms Trade Treaty, which regulates international transactions in conventional weapons, the Comprehensive Prohibition of Nuclear Tests, the Stockholm Convention on pollutants or the historic UN Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Violence against Women, in addition to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Almost all of the above have been signed, but not ratified for fear of loss of national sovereignty.

The Ottawa Treaty banning mines has not even been signed, much less ratified,

like the UN convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS, in its English acronym).

The Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court has suffered a worse fate: it was signed in its day, but the US withdrew from it, considering that it undermined the protection of its citizens and, especially, its soldiers, against a possible investigation for war crimes or causes of a political nature.

"If President Joe Biden wants to show that 'the US is back [on the international scene]', he should try to move forward with the signing or ratification of several of these important international treaties," Anya Wahal recently pointed out in a report for the Council on Foreign Relations.

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