COP16 suspended without agreement on new fund for nature

COP16 Executive Secretary David Cooper (CL), and Colombian Environment Minister and COP16 President, Susana Muhammad (CR) attend the final plenary session of the COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia on November 2, 2024. Photo courtesy: AFP

The 16th United Nations biodiversity talks in Cali, Colombia were suspended on Saturday without an agreement on setting up a new fund to protect nature.

The conference, which lasted about 12 hours before its scheduled conclusion, produced an important agreement to establish a subsidiary body that would include indigenous peoples in future discussions and decisions on biodiversity conservation.

Participating countries also agreed to establish a new global fund dedicated to sharing the benefits of digitally sequenced genetic data taken from plants and animals with the communities from which they come.

As the final plenary session extended into Saturday morning, many negotiators left to catch flights home, prompting Colombian Environment Minister and COP16 President Susana Muhammad to adjourn the session due to lack of quorum. It is not yet known when and where the session will resume.

COP16 aims to assess progress toward a 2022 agreement reached by Canada to halt biodiversity loss, with more funding for biodiversity conservation a central issue.

Observers noted a clear divide between the Global North and Global South during the negotiations. Rich countries were hesitant to increase funding, while developing countries argued that they could not scale up their efforts without additional financial support.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), adopted at COP15 in Canada in 2022, set 23 targets to be achieved by 2030, including conserving 30 percent of land and marine areas and restoring 30 percent of degraded ecosystems. Doing is involved. ,

At the Canada summit, countries agreed to make US$200 billion available each year for biodiversity conservation by 2030, including transfers of US$30 billion per year from developed countries to developing countries. However, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, in 2022, only US$15 billion was actually available.

Countries have pledged nearly US$400 million to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), created last year under the US-based Global Environment Facility to help meet the UN’s biodiversity targets.

Developing countries argued that rich countries have significant influence on the GEF and proposed creating a new dedicated fund for nature. However, countries like Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and members of the European Union rejected the proposal.

At the conference, a wide variety of countries, including India, Peru and Thailand, presented their action plans to protect biodiversity. However, about 150 countries, including Brazil, have not yet published their biodiversity plans.

“Nature is on life support and by not making a strong financial agreement here in Cali, the risk of its collapse increases. We are living in a time where it is clear that our future is at stake. We should be ashamed “There is a political need to delay action if the world and nature survive,” said Patricia Zurita, chief strategy officer at Conservation International, a nonprofit environmental organization based in the United States.

“While actions must be bolder and decisions must move faster, we are not leaving Cali completely empty-handed. Today’s decision places indigenous peoples in the ongoing Global Biodiversity Framework process as some of the greatest managers on Earth. And it elevates the voice of local communities. This is an important step towards biodiversity and carbon-rich ecosystems,” she said.

Crystal Davis, global director of food, land and water at the World Resources Institute, said the talks concluded with a cautious step towards protecting nature.

“Developing countries now have a new source of funding to protect biodiversity, a fund that urges companies to contribute to digitally stored genetic resources used for medicines and cosmetics. However A significant breakthrough, contributions to the fund are voluntary and the onus is now on companies to demonstrate impact,” she said.

Davis said the new permanent body, involving indigenous peoples and local communities in negotiations, “gives a more formal voice and decision-making power” to the most responsible managers of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystem and largest carbon sink.