This yr’s United Nations biodiversity summit, COP16, has kicked off this week in Colombia, a nature hotspot described as one of many world’s 17 “megadiverse” nations.
Greater than 23,000 representatives from governments, civil society, media and past – a file quantity for a biodiversity convention – have gathered within the nation’s third-largest metropolis, Cali, for 2 weeks of talks.
The summit comes two years after COP15, when 196 nations dedicated to a world deal on nature that set out 4 long-term objectives and 23 particular targets to be achieved by 2030 to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
In Cali, governments will concentrate on implementation of this settlement, the Kunming-Montreal International Biodiversity Framework (GBF), with many beginning to submit up to date nationwide plans in the direction of this.
For Latin America, the convention is a chance to focus on the area’s important position in preserving biodiversity amid rising threats from extractive industries. Because the COP president, Colombia has additionally aimed to place points round power programs and transitions excessive up the agenda.
Vitality has obtained much less consideration at earlier summits, however its linkages with biodiversity and pure assets, in addition to local weather change, are being highlighted by the presidency, and have stirred debate amongst individuals in numerous panels on the occasion.
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Funds are alarmingly inadequate. Creating nations must mobilise assets domestically whereas combating poverty, starvation and inequality. We advocate for a good monetary structure for biodiversity.
Gillian Guthrie, chief technical director, Jamaica Ministry of Housing, City Renewal, Atmosphere and Local weather Change
“Latin America is a powerhouse in renewable power and biodiversity and each points are linked,” Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s surroundings minister and the COP16 president, informed Dialogue Earth. “We have to begin discussing that intersection so governments can create public insurance policies that make the 2 sectors suitable. “It’s not sufficient simply to decarbonise. We have to additionally get well the ecosystems to stabilise the world’s local weather.”
Final yr, Latin America generated 62 per cent of its electrical energy from renewable sources, largely hydropower however with a rising presence of photo voltaic and wind, in accordance with knowledge from local weather suppose tank Ember. The area can also be a longtime producer of a number of minerals important for clear power applied sciences, accounting for 40 per cent of the manufacturing of copper and supplying 35 per cent of the world’s lithium, amongst different minerals.
The enlargement of photo voltaic and wind farms has, nevertheless, led to conflicts with native communities in recent times amid disputes over land and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. This has additionally been the case with the various new mining tasks within the area, from Argentina to Peru. Vital minerals and commodities have been the main focus of 23 per cent of overseas investments within the area in 2023.
“We’re not against the power transition, however we’re being sacrificed within the identify of it,” Iber Sarapura, a resident of the Alfarcito group within the Salinas Grandes salt flat in northern Argentina, informed Dialogue Earth in Cali. Initiatives to take advantage of lithium deposits at Salinas Grandes have attracted a lot curiosity, however encountered important native resistance.
“We stay in the one salt flat in Argentina that has mentioned ‘no’ to lithium, a spot the place it rains just one week per yr. Water is far more useful than the mineral,” Sarapura mentioned.
Biodiversity finance
International locations agreed beneath the GBF that a minimum of US$200 billion in annual funding was essential to assist biodiversity safety and restoration, to be offered by a number of sources, together with governments and the personal sector and in addition new finance mechanisms.
The UN established a brand new fund for the GBF however forward of the convention, solely seven nations had to date allotted funding to it, committing a complete of US$243 million.
Of their addresses at COP16, Latin American governments highlighted the necessity to improve funding for biodiversity from developed nations. Gillian Guthrie, Jamaica’s consultant beneath the UN Conference on Organic Range (CBD) addressed the difficulty within the plenary on behalf of GRULAC, the Latin America and Caribbean negotiating group.
“Enough funding is a prerequisite to implement the GBF. Funds are alarmingly inadequate. Falling in need of funding results in tasks on the bottom being underfunded,” Guthrie mentioned. “Creating nations must mobilise assets domestically whereas combating poverty, starvation and inequality. We advocate for a good monetary structure for biodiversity.”
Brazil, on behalf of the Like-Minded Megadiverse International locations – a gaggle of 20 events dwelling to 70 per cent of world biodiversity – mentioned in an announcement that whereas they’re doing their greatest to implement the GBF, worldwide cooperation is prime. “The size of the cooperation, whether or not by bilateral channels or multilateral entities, has not been enough, well timed, and predictable,” it reads.
Emilio Spataro, an affiliate in biodiversity diplomacy on the Local weather Finance Group for Latin America and the Caribbean (GFLAC), an NGO, informed Dialogue Earth that it will be unattainable to fulfil the biodiversity targets beneath the GBF if a wider dialogue on finance doesn’t happen – feedback echoing these of Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro on the opening plenary.
“The US, China and Europe cost curiosity surcharge to the nations that soak up CO2 from the ambiance like sponges by our forests. Asking for a threat premium to those that soak up the CO2 spewed by the planet’s mega-rich is a really lethal contradiction,” Petro mentioned. “It’s the richest predators who needs to be taxed to decarbonise manufacturing and consumption.”
Nationwide plans
As a part of the GBF, nations agreed to submit Nationwide Biodiversity Technique and Motion Plans (NBSAPs) forward of COP16. These are plans for a way nations will meet the targets beneath the framework. Nonetheless, 83 per cent of the 196 nations which can be a part of the CBD haven’t but offered their up to date plans with one week to go earlier than the top of the convention.
In Latin America, solely Colombia, Mexico, Suriname and Cuba have to date offered their plans. Colombia’s plan, for instance, goals to increase the world of protected lands by 10 per cent to achieve 34 per cent of its territory by 2030, and to construct a transparent connection between nature and local weather. The nation expects to have 3 per cent of its GDP relying on biodiversity by 2030, up from the present degree of 0.8 per cent, by boosting the bioeconomy.
Subsequent week, the COP16 summit’s so-called Excessive-Degree Phase will happen, with the anticipated participation of presidents Lula da Silva of Brazil, Dina Boluarte of Peru and Xiomara Castro of Honduras, amongst others. They may give temporary speeches within the plenary and may additionally take part in different aspect occasions within the convention.
COP16 is predicted to complete on 1 November with an settlement on the best way to monitor, report, and assessment progress on the GBF targets. International locations must also finalise negotiations on sharing the advantages from the usage of digital sequence data (DSI) on plant and animal genetic assets, and approve a plan on the hyperlinks between well being and nature, amongst different points.
“We shouldn’t see the GBF as an impediment or a threat however as a substitute as a possibility to think about a brand new economic system,” Muhamad mentioned.
This story was produced as a part of the 2024 CBD COP16 Fellowship organised by Internews’ Earth Journalism Community.
This text was initially printed on Dialogue Earth beneath a Inventive Commons licence.
