COP16 president celebrates the fact that biodiversity is “on an equal footing” with the climate crisis 29/10/2024

Colombia's Environment Minister and COP16 President Susana Mohamad says more money is needed for a biodiversity fund.

By AFP - Agence France Presse

COP16 president celebrates the fact that biodiversity is “on an equal footing” with the climate crisis

The world's largest nature protection conference, which is being held in Cali, has put biodiversity loss “on an equal footing” with the climate emergency, the Colombian president of the meeting told AFP in an interview on Monday.

“I think we've already achieved a first objective, which was to raise the political profile of the... biodiversity issue, to put it on an equal footing with the... climate issue,” said Susana Muhamad, who is also Colombia's environment minister, about the progress made.

The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity attracted a record 23,000 registered delegates and around 1,200 journalists to Cali, according to the organizers.

Thousands of activists and residents also gathered in the so-called “green zone” for cultural activities and demonstrations.

On Tuesday, UN chief Antonio Guterres, six heads of state, and 115 ministers will attend the conference in southwest Colombia.

With the theme “Peace with Nature,” COP16 has the urgent task of creating monitoring and financing mechanisms to achieve 23 nature protection goals agreed upon in Canada two years ago.

Muhamad told AFP that the Global Biodiversity Fund (GBFF), created to give effect to these goals, “needs more money.”

To unlock more funds, she said, “it would be very useful if developed countries could increase their messaging that they will meet the development finance target” before leaving Cali.

Several developing countries have called for the creation of a different fund that, unlike the GBFF, does not fall under the Global Environment Facility - which they say is difficult to access.

On Sunday, Guterres called on the 196 signatories of the biodiversity convention to “turn words into action” and fatten up the GBFF.

So far, countries have made around 250 million dollars in commitments to the fund, according to monitoring agencies.

According to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, finalized in 2022, countries should mobilize at least $200 billion a year by 2030 for biodiversity, including $20 billion a year by 2025 from rich nations to help developing nations.

One of the main objectives of the summit is to agree on a mechanism to share the profits from genetic information taken from plants and animals - for medicinal use, for example - with the communities from which they come.

With an estimated one million known species worldwide at risk of extinction, delegates will have a lot of work ahead of them in Cali.

There are only five years left to achieve the UN's 23 goals, which include protecting 30% of land and sea areas by 2030.

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