COP16: A waste of time and a wasted opportunity
© Maxime Aliaga
Nov 5, 2024
The countries of the world have failed to understand the urgency of stopping the mass extinction of animal and plant species: The 16th UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, was suspended without an agreement on funding. The question of how to pay for biodiversity conservation remains unanswered.
The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16), which ended over the weekend in Cali, Colombia, was supposed to establish a financing architecture for biodiversity conservation. But the negotiations ended on Saturday morning without a final agreement.
Delegations had been negotiating all night. As the night wore on, more and more participants left the conference for the airport because they couldn’t afford to rebook their flights home, so the plenary lost its quorum and the negotiations ground to a halt.
A key point of contention that remains unresolved was whether a separate pot of money should be set aside for global conservation. Countries in the Global South, which are home to rainforests and other areas of significant biodiversity, would have a greater say. The EU and others continued to oppose this.
Promised for 2022 – delayed until October 2025
Two years ago, rich countries pledged provide $ 20 billion a year by 2025 – and $ 30 billion by 2030 – to protect biodiversity. But so far, only a small fraction of that has been made available, and often only in the form of loans.
Decisions on funding and other issues were postponed until the next meeting in Thailand in October 2025. “The meeting is adjourned” was the last sentence of COP16.
With financing issues still unresolved, it is unclear how much countries will pursue offsets and biodiversity credits to raise money. To highlight the risks of these compensation schemes, we will continue to promote our petition “Nature is not a commodity”.
On the positive side: Indigenous peoples empowered
Two positive decisions were made at COP16:
The first was the creation of a separate body to protect the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples.
“We very much welcome the fact that the rights of Indigenous peoples to have a say in the protection of biodiversity have been strengthened. They are the true guardians of nature,” said Rainforest Rescue Co-Chair Marianne Klute: “The question, of course, is whether these rights will translate into action. Will the voices of Indigenous people carry real weight in the decision-making process, or will it just be a formality that disappears down the negotiating hole?”
Money for digital sequence information (DSI)
The second promising outcome was the creation of the “Cali Fund”. Pharmaceutical, cosmetic and agricultural companies, among others, will pay one percent of their profits from the use of plant genetic data into this fund. The money is to benefit Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Global South who protect nature and its genetic resources. However, payments are only voluntary.
Review of the “30 by 30” target
One of the most memorable goals of the last conference in Montréal was to protect 30 percent of the world's land and oceans by 2030. A new UN study shows that this goal is far from being met.
According to the study, of the 30 percent target, only 17.6 percent of land and 8.4 percent of oceans have been protected. To reach the target within the next six years, an additional 16.7 million square kilometers of land – an area roughly the size of Russia – would need to be protected.
Like many human rights and Indigenous organizations, Rainforest Rescue warns that “30 by 30” could lead to the displacement of millions of people living in areas designated as protected.
The fact that only 3.95 percent of protected areas are managed by Indigenous peoples shows how little consideration they have been given. According to the UN authors, the 30 percent target would be easier to achieve if more Indigenous territories were recognized as such and declared for conservation purposes.
