The “individuals’s COP”, the “implementation COP”, the “peace with nature COP” — the United Nations’ upcoming biodiversity summit, COP16 has already gained a number of taglines.
However no matter these labels, as governments, conservation consultants and companies meet in Colombia this month, they may have a full agenda to show rhetoric on nature safety and restoration into concrete actions.
What’s COP16?
COP16 is the sixteenth Convention of the Events of the United Nations’ Conference on Organic Variety (CBD), a treaty established in 1992 to compel shared international motion on the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of its elements, and the truthful sharing of the advantages derived from the usage of genetic sources.
The CBD presently counts 193 member nations, with solely 4 UN member states not but events: Andorra, South Sudan, the USA and the Vatican.
The place and when will COP16 be held?
The Colombian metropolis of Cali is internet hosting COP16 after the unique host, Turkey, pulled out following the devastating earthquake in February 2023. Talks start on 21 October and are scheduled to finish on 1 November.
What are the objectives of COP16?
COP16 will give attention to implementing the worldwide deal on nature agreed on the final COP in December 2022. The 4 long-term objectives and 23 particular targets of the Kunming-Montreal International Biodiversity Framework (GBF) have an general mission of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.
Key targets embody conserving 30 per cent of the world’s land and 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030, considerably boosting finance for the safety and restoration of nature, decreasing the impression of invasive species, reducing air pollution from pesticides and plastics, sustainably managing agriculture, and prioritising the involvement of Indigenous peoples and native communities.
By the point COP16 opens, nations are anticipated to have submitted updates to their Nationwide Biodiversity Methods and Motion Plans (NBSAPs) to align them with targets within the GBF. If they can not full them in time, they’re allowed to submit nationwide targets. As of late September, 24 nations had submitted NBSAPs to the CBD, whereas 72 had submitted targets solely.
The assembly will establish obstacles and alternatives associated to NBSAPs, in addition to talk about the best way to monitor, report, and overview progress, together with the usage of particular indicators.
The COP can be anticipated to finalise negotiations on sharing the advantages from the usage of Digital Sequence Info (DSI) on plant and animal genetic sources, together with establishing a brand new international fund that can assist plug the finance hole for nature safety and restoration initiatives.
Negotiators on this problem met in August to agree on a draft deal. Many parts are nonetheless undecided, together with who will contribute to the fund, how will probably be managed, and who will obtain the funding.
Different points on the agenda embody establishing a everlasting physique underneath the CBD to enhance the involvement of indigenous peoples and native communities; a worldwide motion plan for integrating insurance policies on nature and well being; voluntary steerage on managing invasive alien species, one of many main causes of biodiversity loss; and an replace to the International Technique for Plant Conservation.
Who’re the important thing individuals at COP16?
Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s minister of atmosphere and sustainable growth since 2022, will lead negotiations as president of the COP.
The previous atmosphere secretary of Colombia’s capital metropolis, Bogotá, she has gained recognition for her dedication to inexperienced causes and robust advocacy of the nation’s peace course of, and has led technical help programmes on local weather change and conservation.
COP16 would be the first main negotiation for Astrid Schomaker in her new function as government secretary of the UN’s Conference on Organic Variety. The German former European Fee diplomat took up the submit earlier this yr.
Which nations have a key function within the talks?
Host nation Colombia – the most biodiverse nation on the planet per sq. kilometre – has themed the occasion as “peace with nature”, which displays its need to start out a mass motion to shift humanity’s relationship with nature from exploitative to cooperative. Nonetheless, Colombia additionally topped a worldwide rating for murders of environmental defenders for the second yr operating, with 79 killed in 2023 alone.
Along with Germany, Colombia has launched the NBSAP accelerator, which gives entry to monetary and technical help for nations growing their nationwide biodiversity plans. Costa Rica, France, and the UK promote the Excessive Ambition Coalition for Folks and Nature.
Representatives from the UK and Malawi are co-chairing the talks on benefit-sharing and DSI. The UK, Ecuador, Gabon, and the Maldives are asking governments to endorse a ‘Political Imaginative and prescient: A ten Level Plan for Financing Biodiversity’ to help its safety, conservation, restoration, and sustainable use. In the meantime, a gaggle of growing nations led by Nigeria has shaped a Ministerial Alliance for Nature Finance.
Will finance be a sticking level?
Nations agreed underneath the Kunming-Montreal GBF that not less than US$200 billion was wanted yearly to fund biodiversity safety and restoration. That is to come back from quite a lot of sources, together with public cash for home tasks and worldwide donations, non-public sector contributions, and progressive financing mechanisms equivalent to funds for ecosystem providers, inexperienced bonds, biodiversity offsets and credit, and benefit-sharing mechanisms.
Since COP15, the CBD has established the International Biodiversity Framework Fund. This fund is operational, with steps taken to make sure fast and versatile disbursement of funds. Nonetheless, solely seven nations have paid into it thus far, totalling US$243.86 million, in keeping with the UN’s International Surroundings Facility, which manages the fund.
That is far wanting the minimal US$20 billion yearly that developed nations pledged to offer to poorer nations by 2025, rising to not less than US$30 billion a yr by 2030.
Campaigners argue that progress on the US$20 billion promise is crucial to constructing belief between richer and poorer nations at COP16. A lot of the world’s remaining biodiversity is positioned in growing nations, which means they may bear a disproportionate share of the duty and prices of saving it. In June, a gaggle of marketing campaign organisations launched a worldwide marketing campaign to attain the US$20 billion goal by 2025.
Forward of COP16, the CBD has been talking with governments to extend contributions to the fund.
The UN Surroundings Programme is to host a finance day at COP16 to push finance ministers, chief executives, and different leaders in biodiversity and finance to debate and collaborate on the difficulty.
China is anticipated to launch the primary name for proposals for its 1.5 billion yuan (US$233 million) biodiversity fund to help tasks in growing nations. The fund was initially introduced in October 2021.
The DSI fund, anticipated to be established at COP16, might additionally play a major function in addressing the finance hole. Estimates supplied to the CBD forward of negotiations in August prompt that the fund might generate US$1-10 billion a yr.
Nations additionally pledged to reform subsidies that hurt nature. Nonetheless, these elevated by 55 per cent to US$1.7 trillion between 2022 and 2023, pushed largely by a doubling of help for fossil gasoline consumption, in keeping with the United Nations Surroundings Programme’s newest annual report on finance for nature. Schomaker has admitted that the difficulty of subsidies is “very, very difficult”.
Who will attend COP16?
The CBD secretariat is anticipating over 14,000 attendees at COP16, together with delegates from nations which are signed as much as the CBD and people that aren’t (such because the US and the Vatican), not less than 12 heads of state, together with from Brazil, Mexico, Honduras and Guinea-Bissau, and 100 ministers, representing atmosphere, finance and agricultural briefs.
Representatives from indigenous peoples and native communities, subnational governments, civil society, ladies’s teams, youth, enterprise, and academia may even be current.
How will COP16 be judged a hit?
The Colombian presidency is aiming for 3 primary outcomes at COP16, in keeping with Muhamad, who spoke at a media briefing in September. Firstly, they need all sectors of society to have interaction with the COP; secondly, they need governments and societies to see nature safety and restoration as equally vital as decarbonisation; and at last, they hope to succeed in an settlement on the DSI fund.
Campaigners equivalent to WWF wish to see NBSAPs finalised, a sturdy monitoring framework agreed, larger confidence in finance commitments, concrete measures to deal with the drivers of biodiversity loss, higher integration with international local weather coverage, and a deal on the DSI fund.
Companies aligned with the Enterprise for Nature coalition have referred to as for governments to undertake and strengthen nature insurance policies and laws, together with strict bans on business or industrial land use conversion or useful resource extraction in essentially the most protected areas, and project-level restoration obligations the place impacts are unavoidable.
This text was initially revealed on Dialogue Earth underneath a Inventive Commons licence.
