What is COP15? Why it matters and what's at stake at the Montreal summit

Thousands of delegates representing 192 countries will spend the next two weeks in Montreal, hammering out a once-in-a-decade agreement that will aim to build a more sustainable relationship between humans and nature.

The UN biodiversity summit, known as COP15, officially kicks off Dec. 7 in Montreal. If all goes according to plan, the conference will produce a new agreement outlining global biodiversity goals for the next 10 years.

The conference is supposed to wrap up on Dec. 19, but negotiations may run into overtime. 

Here's what you need to know.

COP, in United Nations jargon, simply means Conference of Parties. It is a decision-making body made up of countries that have signed a convention. 

COP15 is different from the climate change summit, COP27, which was recently held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. That conference was under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

The Montreal summit, COP15, is a meeting under the Convention on Biological Diversity. In 1992, 150 government leaders first signed that convention at the Rio Earth Summit.

While biodiversity and climate change are related issues, the two conventions are separate. 

This meeting marks the second part of COP15, sometimes referred to as the Nature COP or the UN biodiversity summit. The first part was held last year as a mostly virtual conference based in Kunming, China. 

Though it's being hosted in Montreal, the summit is chaired under the presidency of China. 

The biodiversity summit is a big deal, because it's likely to result in a new framework or agreement, outlining goals for how the world should protect nature and use it more sustainably and equitably. 

"The food we eat comes from biodiversity, the water we drink comes from biodiversity. The air we breathe [comes from biodiversity]," said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The ultimate goal is to stop biodiversity loss and build a sustainable relationship with nature in response to unprecedented rates of declining nature and species extinction.

The pressure is on to create a new agreement with better monitoring and financing built in after countries, including Canada, failed to meet the 2020 goals of the last biodiversity plan, known as the Aichi targets.