The 2020 Conference (to be held in Beijing) will provide an opportunity to develop an integrated framework that applies to the Convention and both Protocols and can serve as a framework for other biodiversity-related Conventions and processes. It was mandated at the thirteenth COP (2016), which requested the Executive Secretary to prepare, in consultation with the Bureau and for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Implementation, a proposal for a preparatory process and timetable for the follow-up to the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.

A general view expressed in the draft proposals of the 2020 Conference is that the post-2020 global biodiversity framework should be more ambitious than the current strategic plan. To this end, several activities are scheduled across 2018 and 2019 to consider and make recommendations toward the proposed preparatory process for the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (namely within SBI-2, COP-14, and COPMOP-9). Additionally, a leaders’ summit meeting is to be held on the margins of the opening of UNGA 75 (September 2020) to give political direction and momentum to the development of the post-2020 framework. In October 2020, COP-15 will consider the final draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework with a view to adoption.