Wealthy Nations’ Absence at COP16 Hampers Biodiversity Funding

Summary

The United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Rome final­ized a strat­egy for global funds to com­bat bio­di­ver­sity loss, endors­ing mech­a­nisms to imple­ment the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and cre­at­ing the Cali Fund for fair dis­tri­b­u­tion of ben­e­fits from genetic resources. The agree­ment, hailed as his­toric by COP16 pres­i­dent Susana Muhammad and EU com­mis­sioner Jessika Roswall, aims to close the bio­di­ver­sity finance gap, but chal­lenges remain in secur­ing fund­ing from major economies and ensur­ing finan­cial com­mit­ments are met for the GBF imple­men­ta­tion.

A sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of inter­na­tional del­e­gates con­vened in Rome, pledg­ing to inten­sify their com­mit­ment to bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion world­wide.

In a last-minute deci­sion, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16) final­ized a long-antic­i­pated strat­egy for mobi­liz­ing and allo­cat­ing global funds to com­bat bio­di­ver­sity loss.

Additionally, COP16 endorsed strength­ened mech­a­nisms for plan­ning, mon­i­tor­ing, report­ing and review­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), estab­lished dur­ing COP15.

The GBF is seen as a piv­otal frame­work that lends struc­ture and impact to global bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion efforts.

Its pri­mary goal is to curb bio­di­ver­sity loss by safe­guard­ing at least 30 per­cent of the world’s land and marine areas by 2030.

The GBF aims to expand nat­ural ecosys­tems by 2050, prop­erly acknowl­edge biodiversity’s crit­i­cal role in sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, facil­i­tate genetic resource shar­ing and knowl­edge to enhance bio­di­ver­sity and increase fund­ing for the least devel­oped coun­tries, trans­form­ing bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion into a key devel­op­ment oppor­tu­nity.

Simultaneously, COP16 sanc­tioned the cre­ation of the Cali Fund, designed to guar­an­tee the fair and equi­table dis­tri­b­u­tion of ben­e­fits derived from dig­i­tal sequence infor­ma­tion on genetic resources.

The fund is named after Cali, Colombia, where the inau­gural COP16 ses­sion occurred in November.

The Rome con­fer­ence also granted indige­nous peo­ples per­ma­nent seats, allow­ing them to voice their per­spec­tives directly at future bio­di­ver­sity COPs.

Colombian envi­ron­ment min­is­ter and COP16 pres­i­dent Susana Muhammad hailed the agree­ment as ​“his­toric,” empha­siz­ing that ​“we have given legs, arms and mus­cle to the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework.”

Jessika Roswall, the European Union’s com­mis­sioner for the envi­ron­ment, water resilience and a com­pet­i­tive cir­cu­lar econ­omy, said the agree­ment ​“secured a global roadmap to sup­port financ­ing for bio­di­ver­sity beyond 2030.”

“The results of this meet­ing demon­strate that mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism works and serves as the vehi­cle to forge the part­ner­ships needed to pro­tect bio­di­ver­sity and advance peace with nature,” added Astrid Schomaker, exec­u­tive sec­re­tary of COP16.

She fur­ther noted that the world is on the verge of equip­ping itself with ​“the means to close the bio­di­ver­sity finance gap.”

Wealthier nations’ active par­tic­i­pa­tion in global bio­di­ver­sity efforts remains a crit­i­cal chal­lenge for COP16. The con­fer­ence’s first ses­sion in Cali ended with­out an agree­ment.

Although an agree­ment was reached in Rome, the ques­tion of fund­ing remains unre­solved. Major economies such as China and the United States did not par­tic­i­pate.

Moreover, none of the finan­cial com­mit­ments dis­cussed at the con­fer­ence are legally bind­ing. However, the agree­ment out­lines a $200 (€183) bil­lion fund to sup­port global bio­di­ver­sity efforts, financed by gov­ern­ments and pri­vate enti­ties.

“More than any other issue, the suc­cess­ful imple­men­ta­tion of the Global Biodiversity Framework will depend on whether the world meets its financ­ing tar­gets,” said Brian O’Donnell, direc­tor of advo­cacy group Campaign for Nature.

The GBFF, the fund des­ig­nated to sup­port GBF imple­men­ta­tion, cur­rently holds $382 (€350) mil­lion, far short of the bil­lions pledged at the Conference.

Only a hand­ful of coun­tries con­tribute to the GBFF, includ­ing the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, France, Austria and Luxembourg.

Bolivian del­e­gate Juan Carlos Alurralde Tejada told The Guardian that uncer­tainty about who is will­ing to pay and how the funds will be dis­trib­uted is drain­ing the global effort.

“Biodiversity can­not wait for a bureau­cratic process that lasts for ever, while the envi­ron­men­tal cri­sis con­tin­ues to get worse,” he said. ​“Forests are burn­ing, rivers are in agony and ani­mals are dis­ap­pear­ing.”

• Convention for Biological Diversity
• The Guardian