The world’s pledges to halt humanity’s destruction of nature will be put to the test when the 16th UN Conference on Biodiversity opens in Colombia on Monday.
COP16, to be held in the city of Cali until November 1, is the first meeting of the international community since the adoption two years ago of an unprecedented roadmap to achieve that goal.
But if that agreement is put into practice, it risks not moving fast enough to halt the destruction of land, oceans and species by the 2030 target date.
How will COP16 ensure that countries achieve the 23 targets of the ‘Global Biodiversity Framework’? Can it free up the billions of dollars needed? Can it guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples?
Here’s a summary of what’s at stake:
– Keeping promises –
Creating protected areas, restoring degraded land, reducing pesticide use, increasing funding for nature – few of the goals humanity previously set for 2020 have been achieved.
To prevent this failure from happening again, countries agreed at COP15 to establish a monitoring mechanism, with common indicators to measure progress, and a possible evaluation procedure.
But the details of this mechanism, which are crucial to holding countries to account, have yet to be agreed.
Carrying out these negotiations will be the top agenda item for COP16 and host country Colombia, which aims to position itself as a leader in the global fight to protect nature.
But parallel negotiations, especially in the financial field, will also play a role.
– Securing national plans –
As of mid-October, only 29 of 196 countries had submitted national biodiversity strategies to reflect their share of the global effort.
And 91 have submitted “national targets,” or commitments to all or some of the targets, under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Several countries could publish their plans in Cali, and those of Colombia and Brazil are eagerly awaited.
About 12,000 delegates, including seven heads of state, are expected to attend COP16.
In particular, the spotlight will be on the global framework’s flagship goal: placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under minimum protection by 2030.
According to the environmental group WWF, using preliminary data from the UN, 8.35 percent of the seas and 17.5 percent of the land were considered protected in September – in other words, barely more than in 2022.
– Freeing up financing –
The efforts of rich countries to finance those of the developing world will be at the center of the debates in Cali.
Developed countries have committed to spending $20 billion per year on biodiversity by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), $15.4 billion had been raised by 2022.
Developing countries will also revive their calls for the creation of an autonomous fund, which is a major bone of contention for rich countries, which are categorically opposed to setting up multiple funds.
To unlock private finance, biodiversity credits will be another major problem.
– Biopiracy –
“Biopiracy” – the use of genetic resources in everything from cosmetics to seeds, medicines, biotechnology and food supplements without the consent of those who maintain this traditional knowledge – is a particularly difficult issue in the negotiations.
Since 2014, the Nagoya Protocol, which stipulates that persons providing genetic resources or traditional knowledge should enjoy the benefits arising from their use, has made it possible to pay for any use of a plant or animal.
However, these resources have become digitized genetic sequences or DSI (Digital Sequence Information), benefiting almost exclusively wealthy economies.
Resolving this is a priority for many developing countries and an agreement could be found in Cali to set up a global profit-sharing system.
But which companies will contribute? Is this on a voluntary or mandatory basis? And how will the money be distributed?
“If a mandatory contribution of 0.1 percent is adopted, this potentially represents a billion dollars,” said Sebastien Treyer, executive director of French think tank Iddri.
– Indigenous populations –
Indigenous peoples are well represented at biodiversity COPs, but often emerge most disappointed by final decisions.
This year, they plan to use the summit taking place on the edge of the Amazon to get their rights and ancestral knowledge recognized after years of marginalization and forced displacement.
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