A view of the closing session of the United Nations COP16 Nature Summit in Cali, Colombia on November 1, 2024. Photo courtesy: Reuters
A united nations nature summit Colombia on Saturday (November 2, 2024) agreed to create a fund to share the profits of digitally sequenced genetic data taken from animals and plants with the communities where they come from.
Such data, much of which is from species found in poor countries, is especially used in drugs and cosmetics that can earn their developers billions.
Few, if any, benefits of the data – often downloaded from free-access online databases – reach the communities that first discovered a species’ usefulness.
The issue had been a subject of controversy at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which began in the Colombian city of Cali about two weeks ago.
The previous summit, COP15 in Montreal, agreed on the creation of a “multilateral mechanism” to share the benefits of digitally sequenced genetic information – abbreviated as DSI – “including a global fund.”
But in Cali, negotiators debated for nearly two weeks over basic questions such as who pays, how much, to what fund and to whom the money should go.
Following a last-minute compromise, CBD member states agreed to the creation of a “Cali Fund” for equitable sharing of DSI benefits.
The agreement stipulates that users who benefit commercially from DSI must “contribute a portion of their profits or revenues to the global fund.”
The document stipulates that those whose income exceeds a certain income threshold must contribute one percent of profits or 0.1 percent of revenues.
The non-binding agreement lists targeted sectors including producers of pharmaceuticals, food and health supplements, cosmetics, biotechnology and agribusiness.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had urged delegates at the start of the talks to greenlight a mechanism to regulate the use of DSI so that the benefits can be shared equitably.
“Developing countries are being looted,” he said.
“Biodiversity from digitized DNA underpins scientific discoveries and economic growth. But developing countries do not appropriately benefit from these advances, despite being home to extraordinary prosperity,” he said.
As scheduled to conclude on Friday, the summit went into overtime for several hours as delegates argued over minor points in the text.
By the time the deal was approved, many delegates had left the conference in a hurry to catch planes back home.
published – November 02, 2024 09:43 PM IST