Twenty-eighth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-28) - PM session Agencies, Funds & Programmes Date: 1 August 2026 Language: English Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/zh/asset/k18/k181kbm4mb?lang=en Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations. --- Chair [0:03]: Bonsoir, chers— Good afternoon, dear delegates. Please take your seats. We're going to begin our work once again after yesterday's plenary. So in turn, we will hear back reports from the contact group on item 7, the view on the program on protected areas. I'll give the floor to Ms. Rulliana from Indonesia. You have the floor. Indonesia · Co-Chair · Ms. Rulliana [0:55]: Thank you, Chair. I am pleased to report that the contact group on item 7, following its final meeting this morning, was able to finish its deliberations of the entire non-paper. This was a substantial effort by all the participants, and on behalf of my co-chair Adolphe of France and I, I wish to thank you fellow delegates for their effort to seek consensus. There are still many brackets remaining, but the documents now already posted as CRP 5 shows a fair balance across the many input. Thank you, Chair. Terima kasih. Chair [1:43]: Thank you, Ms. Rulliana from Indonesia. And thank you to Adèle Faldoux from France, your co-chair. Thank you also to all members of the contact group on item 7. Actuellement, je vais donc donner la parole. I will now give the floor. To Miss Sani from the Netherlands to provide a report on item three. Madame Sani, vous avez la parole. Miss Sani, you have the floor. Netherlands (Kingdom of the) · Co-Chair · Miss Sani [2:53]: Much, Mr. Chair, my co-chair Paulina Stowas of Chile and I are very pleased to report back to you on the wonderful progress. That we were able to make today and yesterday in the 5th and 6th meetings of the Contact Group on Agenda Item 3, Planning, Monitoring, Reporting, and Review. We met last night from 9:00 to 11:00 PM and today from 12:00 to 2:00 PM. We have completed our work on the last revision of the NAM paper, and we moved through the remaining operative and preambular paragraphs. As mentioned in our last report to plenary, the recommendation was split. We are presenting one document to you, and it will be split into 2 separate recommendations, one focusing on the global report and the other focusing on PMRR and the monitoring framework. Despite the challenges and the inclusion of some brackets, we are very pleased to reiterate great amount of progress that we were able to make on the uptake of the Global Report, illustrating progress and including ways to address gaps and challenges, while encouraging accelerated— acceleration of further actions. My co-chair and I emphasize that this Contact Group has worked very, very hard over 6 sessions, plus 2 sessions of a Friends of the Chair. So 8 sessions in total. A tremendous amount of work has gone into the documents before you. And we emphasize that we believe that we have gone as far as we can at Substa on the remaining issues. We would not encourage any further discussion on these topics at this meeting because we think we have been able to do what we could do. I would like to thank all the delegates for their inputs, their strong engagement, and their compromises on this key item. So with that, I would like to thank you, Chair. Speaker 5 [4:53]: Merci. Chair [4:56]: Thank you, Ms. Sanna of the Netherlands, and thank you to Paulina from Chile, and thank you also to all the members of the Contact Group. We now consider the CRPs. Dear colleagues, as you know, at the last plenary, we considered the first CRPs. I would like to thank you for the spirit of cooperation and compromise which was shown yesterday. I hope that we can continue in the same spirit today as we consider our next CRPs. We will now consider CRP 4 on gender item 5. Synthetic biology. Begin our session today with CRP4 and on item 5, synthetic biology. Colleagues, before we begin, I give the floor to the Secretariat to make a technical correction. Secretariat, you have the floor. Secretariat [6:30]: Thank you, Chair. On paragraph 11A, the cross-referencing to paragraphs 8— 7 and 8 should instead be to 9 and 10, corresponding to the submissions of information and the discussions of the open-ended online forum. On paragraph 13B, the Secretariat noted that a clarification would be required, being that drafts are submitted for peer review. Speaker 8 [6:58]: Yes. Secretariat [6:58]: Thus, the paragraph 13 should read, to submit a draft stocktake report for a peer review, and then it continues. And finally, in Annex 3, there is an additional opening bracket between the chapeau in paragraph 4 and the subparagraph , which should have been deleted and will be deleted. Thank you. Chair [7:24]: Thank you, Secretariat, colleagues. The CRP was developed by the Contact Group, which had extensive discussion over 4 meetings. As a result, the text from the non-paper was advanced significantly. During the evening sitting of the plenary yesterday, the co-chair of the Contact Group presented the progress made. And the outcomes of the deliberations. Distinguished delegates, I will urge you not to reopen the text at this stage. The CRP before you reflects a carefully balanced package resulting from extensive consultations. Reopening individual paras could upset that balance and jeopardize the progress we had made— we have made. I therefore encourage the delegation to consider the CRP as a whole and, if possible, to approve it as a whole. Speaker 11 [8:44]: Thank you. Chair [8:49]: I see no requests. Colleagues, the CRP before you represents a delicate balance and many hours of good work from the Contact Group. At this point, I'm not sure we will be able to effectively move forward given the extensive brackets. However, we have some elements that we all agree on, and I strongly believe that these would send a signal of confidence to the COP. Although I see requests for the floor, unfortunately, it is not my intention to open the floor for interventions. Colleagues, I once again ask if you can adopt CRP 4 as a whole, understanding that there will be ample opportunity at COP to work Further on this document. Colleagues, can we please approve CRP as a whole? Delegates, I appeal to you to please work with me. I understand that this item is very important Thank you very much, Mr. President. Speaker 13 [10:33]: Thank you. Thank you to many of you. Chair [10:35]: This text was discussed in 4 sittings of the Contact Group. It carries several brackets that represent a number of perspectives. We do not have time to open the technical brackets. As we have heard, the Contact Group worked very hard with multiple reviews through the document. And the remaining bracketed text is related to issues that can only be resolved at COP. We have made good progress, and it is important to acknowledge the flexibility and time spent on this item already. As such, I urge that we move to adopt Speaker 15 [11:25]: I support this item and respect the hard work on the contact group. Chair [11:33]: Colleagues, can we please approve CRP 4 as a whole? I see New Zealand. New Zealand, you have the floor. New Zealand [12:10]: Thank you, Chair. I do apologize for having to intervene. I wish to just get some clarification, and perhaps that's all it is. as needed to be. But regarding the Section 1, new technological developments in synthetic biology, my understanding was that, you know, there are 2 different views on whether or not an OTAG should continue. And there is an 8 alt in there that is fully bracketed and is the only text about the OTAG not continuing. However— And I also note that paragraph 8 is also fully bracketed. However, the remaining text is dependent on paragraph 8 being accepted by parties at the COP. However, there is clean text beneath that in the rest of the section, which tends to imply that perhaps this is not— it implies that there is text that will be accepted as clean text at the moment, so that I would like to just Have brackets at the beginning and the end of this section as a technical clarification. Thank you. Chair [13:23]: Thank you, New Zealand. Thank you, New Zealand. Colleagues, can we now approve CRP 4? CRP 4 is approved. We will produce an all document for this item. Now let's move to item— the next item, CRP 3, on agenda item 6, sustainable wildlife management. Speaker 19 [14:31]: The colleague— Chair [14:56]: Dear colleagues, we will now take up CRP 3 on sustainable wildlife management. This proposal reflects the extensive work that has already gone into developing the text. The CRP is the outcome of a thorough consultation consultative process, including an expert meeting, a peer review, and 3 meetings of the Contact Group, which significantly advanced the draft. The Contact Group worked diligently to address parties' views and has produced a balanced text that, from a technical and scientific perspective, appears to take us as far as we can at this stage— this meeting. Several hours have already been devoted to discussing this document in the Contact Group, and I believe the text before us represents a fair and carefully considered considerate outcome of those discussions. I would also like to remind colleagues that we already have several decisions with a significant number of bracket carryover from the previous subcommittee. In the interest of ensuring a manageable work load for COP, we need to strike an appropriate balance in the way we conclude our work. Therefore, with this explanation, my proposal would be to approve the CRPA as a whole. Speaker 21 [17:00]: Thank you. Chair [17:22]: Dear colleagues, CRP 3 is approved. Speaker 23 [17:28]: Thank you. Chair [18:20]: We will produce an L document for this item. Now let's move to the next consideration of LDOCS. Dear colleagues, last night we approved 2 CRPs, CRP 1 on marine and coastal biodiversity and CRP 2 on matters related to the work program of IBEZ. Therefore, I hope that today we can quickly adopt all documents. Intervention should focus only on ensuring that the all documents are faithful to our approval. Delegation should avoid reopening agreed text or introducing new issues at this stage. I count on your support in this regard. With that understanding, we will begin with document Substa/28/L2, Marine and Coastal Bidvesting. Before I submit for adoption document L2, I would like to give the floor to the Secretariat For a correction. Secretariat, you have the floor. Secretariat [19:57]: Thank you, Chair. Delegates, we have been made aware of an editorial error in Document L2. Paragraph 5 of the document is missing the words, quote, in order to, before the words, quote, support the description. So paragraph 5 should read as follows. Further encourages parties and invites other governments and relevant organizations, as appropriate and in accordance with national circumstances, to make use of the best available scientific information and compatible tools, taking into consideration the identification and recognition of essential and particularly sensitive habitats of marine species, comma, in order to support the description and identification of ecologically or biologically significant marine areas and inform ecosystem-based approaches and area-based conservation measures, including the designation and management of marine and coastal protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures as appropriate in support of Target 3 of the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework. while respecting the mandates of relevant international instruments and processes. This change addresses an unintended ambiguity of the posted version of the paragraph. Thank you, Chair. Chair [21:55]: Thank you, Secretariat. With that, can we adopt this recommendation? I see no objection. Document substar/28/L2 is adopted. Thank you. We will now proceed with document sub*28/L3 under agenda item 4, matters related to the work program of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. I submit for adoption document L3. Can we adopt this recommendation? Speaker 27 [23:12]: Thank you. Uh, chair delegating. Chair [25:22]: Delegates. We'll quickly go back to marine ecosystems. There was a request for the floor from Belgium under that item, not to bring into question what we've adopted, but Belgium wanted to Give a statement just following the adoption of that L document. So I'll therefore give the floor to Belgium. You have the floor. Matters related to the work program of IPBES. So I thus submit document L3 for adoption. Can we adopt this recommendation? I see no objection. Document L3 is adopted. Thank you, colleagues. Colleagues, we have 2 CRPs remaining to be considered. These are CRPs on item 7 and CRPs on item 3. Colleagues, I will suspend this session of plenary for 1 hour and 30 minutes, and when we return, we will take up CRP 5, on item 7, scientific and technological needs to support the implementation of the Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, strategic review and an update to the program of work on protected areas. Before I suspend this session, I will give the floor to the Secretariat for some announcements. Secretariat, you have the floor. Secretariat, proceed. Secretariat [29:35]: Thank you, thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, dear delegates. I would like to draw your attention to a survey that will be conducted with regards to the experiences of parties and observers. With the modalities for the early submission of statements. The Secretariat will provide the link to the survey separately through an email to registered participants to this meeting. You will have until midnight local time on 15 August to complete the survey. The survey is issued and can be completed in all the official languages of the United Nations. Responses to the survey are anonymous. unless you provide your name and contact details. The outcome of the survey will be provided to the bureau of the subsidiary body. Thank you. Chair [30:30]: Thank you, Secretariat. I now give the floor to the Executive Secretary, Astrid Schumacher, for an announcement about a subject of concern to many of you here. Ms. Schumacher, you have the floor. Executive Secretary · Astrid Schumacher [30:51]: Thank you, Chair. This sounds very mysterious. I wanted to come back and report to the plenary in relation to requests made by Egypt to provide an update on the status of the refund in relation to our former DSA cards known as Swiss bankers' cards. So maybe I'll just start with one clarification. I think you're aware that delegates were assigned to UNEP-administered entities based on the most recent event they attended and funded through Swiss bankers. So that means delegates will be contacted by the respective UNEP office that organized the event for which delegates have last received a DSA payment. Now, if that last event was a CBD event, It's us that are following up on that. We have created a dedicated Secretariat task force that has contacted all cardholders to collect the mandatory supporting banking documents required for the refund. All cases that responded with the necessary documentation have been processed accordingly. Now, the current breakdown is as follows. We have 118 completed cases submitted to UNEP for the final stage of refund on 17th of July. Finalization of these refunds is currently being processed by UNEP. 56 additional cases are currently being processed in the system. Once these records are verified and linked, the Secretariat will forward them to UNEP for the final refund stage. And then there are some cardholders who have not yet responded to the email request from the Secretariat to provide supporting banking documents and and we are following up with those on a regular basis. So, in summary, as you know, the Secretariat is acting in a supportive capacity to collect and upload those banking documents and to verify that the uploads are completed properly. The final refund disbursement will be processed entirely by UNEP. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to provide a definitive timeframe for when UNEP will finalize the refunds. However, we remain committed to providing updates as soon and when we receive information from UNEP. Please rest assured that we deeply regret this situation and we will make every effort to resolve these issues despite the heavy workload I think you're aware of we're having through this very busy period. But we really would love to ensure that all delegates receive their funds as efficiently as possible. Thank you for your understanding and patience. Speaker 32 [33:31]: Merci. Chair [33:31]: Thank you. Thank you so much, Executive Secretary. Now, following the statement made by the Executive Secretary, the session is suspended. I urge you to please check the monitors for the start time of the next plenary session. Thank you. Speaker 34 [33:57]: Thank you.