The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) is an open-ended intergovernmental scientific advisory body of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Its 24th fourth meeting, which was due to take place on 17-22 August 2020 in Montreal, Canada, was postponed and it will now be held in the first quarter of 2021, conditions allowing. Items on the provisional agenda for this meeting include synthetic biology (item 4) and risk assessment and risk management of living modified organisms (item 5). Official documents (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and information documents (in English) for the meeting are available at https://www.cbd.int/meetings/SBSTTA-24. Contact [email protected] for more information.