On 21 October, decision makers from across the globe flocked to Cali, Colombia for CBD COP16.
COP16 – or its less catchy title, the sixteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity – took place over the last fortnight. Decision makers gathered in Colombia to discuss progress and ramp up action towards tackling one of the biggest issues of our time: global biodiversity loss.
There were high expectations. As the first meeting of its kind since the world agreed to a new plan to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030 – the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (We’re attending COP16 to ask governments for on the ground action for nature now) – we expected to see real progress on turning global promises into action.
So, after countless hours of negotiations over the course of two weeks, what came out of COP16?
The COP attracted a record number of delegates, and over 100 ministers were in attendance from across the world, as well as heads of state from several countries who joined for a high-level segment. This level of representation and enthusiasm gives hope that nature is finally becoming a core issue.
Outside of the negotiating rooms, Colombia organised a public zone in the city centre, showcasing the city’s abundant biodiversity. Here, the engagement with the public was a real success for the conference, fulfilling Colombia's ambition for COP16 to be the ‘COP of the people’.
In a historic milestone, a new special advisory body was agreed. The voices and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities will be cemented as an integral part of decision-making on nature conservation; this is a crucial step to build equity in global decision-making processes. In the words of the representative from the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, ‘global biodiversity policy will now be stronger and wiser’.
In another momentous outcome for COP, parties agreed on a new global mechanism that will see money flowing from those that are benefiting from the use of biodiversity (like pharmaceutical companies) to those who are protecting it – especially Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
This COP saw the recognition of the need to tackle the climate and nature crisis in tandem. In the negotiation rooms, at the ministerial level, and over the course of many events, the case was made clear that climate action must support biodiversity, and vice versa.
COP16 was intended to be a demonstration of how global promises would be turned into action at home, but the level of urgency required was still yet to materialise.
60% of countries have now put forward their national targets, indicating what they will aim to do nationally to put their global promises into action. However, only about a quarter have put forward plans to show how they are going to practically meet those targets.
We need governments – including from the UK – to return from Cali with a refreshed sense of hope and urgency, ready to get stuck into action. We need to see the implementation of delivery plans that meet the scale of the challenge. In the UK, that means backing up their ambitious National Targets with detailed, robust and financed delivery plans.
Finance was a fundamental element of this COP, dominating hours of negotiations. Huge time pressures at the end of the COP meant that countries did not manage to take a decision on a strategy for future finance for nature. It is urgent that a solution is reached on global financing for nature, otherwise our ambitions will continue to remain simply aspirational.
Time pressures, and political discussions about financing, also meant that an updated version of the monitoring framework (the set of indicators that every country will use to track progress) was not agreed. It’s essential that this is finalised urgently, to help guide countries to take action that is measurable, and to enable governments to be held accountable towards meeting their targets.
Colombia is famous for its diversity of nature, especially its bird species. This flurry of life surrounded the negotiation rooms (and even entered them, with a bat making an appearance in the negotiating room as discussions stretched into the night!) and served as a reminder of what we stand to lose if we don’t take action seriously enough.
So, we're sending a message out from this COP – we know the direction we need to go, we know what’s required to get there, but we’re lacking the level of urgency to get to our goals fast enough. It’s time the global community wakes up to the scale of the challenge and works together to act, because nature can’t wait.
As the meeting of the CBD's sister convention, UNFCCC COP29, is about to kick off in Azerbaijan, it’s important we keep up the momentum of tackling the nature and climate crises together. The door has been opened for a potential joint work programme between the biodiversity and climate conventions, underpinned by science. It's time to make sure that protecting and conserving our natural world is embedded in decision-making across every forum.
Dr Mya-Rose Craig, writer and environmental campaigner said: 'The UK has taken an active role in the negotiations this week, and as one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, it’s incredibly important that they follow through. We know what we need to do, we know what progress we need to see, but we need to take action now. Nature can’t wait'.
