Governments, experts, environmental activists and Indigenous groups are convening in Cali, Colombia, this month for the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)— also known as COP16.
Held every two years, this year’s summit comes under the theme “Peace with Nature 2024,” where delegates will discuss both biodiversity progress and challenges.
The summit, which kicked off Monday and runs until November 1, comes against a backdrop of an intensifying triple planetary crisis and news that the world is lagging on its biodiversity targets.
Biodiversity in Severe Decline
According to the United Nations, the Earth’s biodiversity is in severe decline, with up to a million species threatened with extinction. If the world fails to put the breaks on emissions, many of these species will disappear completely within decades.
Indeed ecosystems and habitats home to many of these species are being rapidly wiped out. Wetlands are highlighted as facing the brunt of this. Around 85 per cent of these ecosystems, such as salt marshes and mangrove swamps, have already disappeared.
According to the UN, human activity is one of the driving forces behind this destruction. From the degradation of natural habitats for large-scale food production to human-caused climate change, which has sent global temperatures skyrocketing, threatening species’ existence and forcing them to migrate, there is now a complete imbalance in our ecosystems.
COP16 is the first Biodiversity COP since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15 in December 2022, which countries signed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
The Framework set out four long-term goals for 2050: protect and restore biodiversity; ensure biodiversity is sustainably used and managed; share benefits fairly; invest and collaborate; and progressively close the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year.
At COP16, governments are expected to review their progress in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its targets, with each country reviewing the Framework for action in its national biodiversity conservation plan.
Speaking in a video message broadcast at the opening ceremony, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged delegates from 190 countries to “make peace with nature” and support a plan to halt habitat loss, save endangered species, and preserve ecosystems. “That Framework is grounded in a clear truth: for humanity to thrive, nature must flourish,” he said. “The Global Biodiversity Framework promises to reset relations with Earth and its ecosystems. But we are not on track. Your task at this COP is to convert words into action.”
COP President and Minister of Environment of Colombia Susana Muhamad echoed a similar sentiment: “It is basically about recomposing the way we live, recomposing the development model, recomposing, rethinking, rediscovering how we live together in diversity, in a system that does not permanently make nature a victim of development, but rather our own reproduction as a society reproduces life.”
The Minister of Environment emphasised the link between biodiversity conservation and linked to climate action, noting that the extractive use of natural resources is responsible for 50 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and causes 90 per cent of biodiversity loss.
Indeed, the UN estimates that if the temperature increases by 1.5 degrees Celsius, between 70 and 90 per cent of coral reefs will be destroyed. At 2 degrees of warming, more than 99 per cent of coral reefs will be lost. In May this year, a Guardian poll found that of the 380 IPCC scientists who responded, 80 per cent foresee at least 2.5C of global heating.
“Powerfully restoring ecosystems and nature can contribute almost 40 per cent to the solution of stabilizing the climate and the carbon cycle,” said Muhamad.
Finance is the Cornerstone of Biodiversity Protection
Restoring ecosystems and nature, however, requires financing— and there’s a significant way to go.
According to the 2022 UN State of Nature Finance 2022 report, funding for nature-based solutions to global crises must double to around US$384 billion per year by 2025, more than double the current US$154 billion per year.
Two years ago, the COP15 framework called for at least US$200 billion to be mobilised from public and private sources annually to finance biodiversity protection activities by 2030.
Indeed, the Framework’s goal is to increase international financial flows from developed to developing countries to at least US$30 billion each year by 2030.
And we are seeing some traction. Last year, the Global Environment Facility announced the launch of the Biodiversity Finance Facility, the world’s largest funding body for biodiversity protection projects, with up to $10 billion in support from participating countries.
But, considering the level of action required to protect their biodiversity and halt the degradation of nature, finance is central, something which will be a core focus across the two weeks.
The Private Sector’s Role in Halting the Biodiversity Loss
The private sector’s potential is huge here, too, and while most nature-related finance comes from public sources, the volume of private sector financing for nature has increased nearly elevenfold in four years, from $9.4 billion to more than $102 billion.
Yet, the scale of their damage continues to far exceed their positive impact. The 2023 “State of Nature Finance 2023” report found that private finance flows with a direct negative impact on nature are at US$5 trillion—out of a total of $7 trillion from both the public and private sectors.
This private nature-negative finance is around 140 times the size of private finance funnelled NbS.
However, the UNEP Finance Initiative projects that around $1.45 trillion could flow from all sectors by 2030 to support biodiversity in different forms. It says this financing ranges from alternative investments and traded debt to private equity and new financial instruments such as biodiversity credits.
With the aim of realising this goal, the Initiative notes that it brings together a “large network” of banks, insurers, and investors to collectively catalyse action across the financial system.
Indeed, the building blocks are in place for private funding to rise in parallel with public funding to support the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Earlier this week, in his speech to delegates, Guterres urged delegates to ensure that the Cali Summit ends with a clear direction on investment.
“We must leave Cali with significant investment in the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund and commitments to mobilize other sources of public and private finance to deliver the Framework in full. And those profiting from nature must contribute to its protection and restoration,” said the UN Chief.
He added that developing countries are “being plundered” and not gaining fairly from advances in the digitised DNA from biodiversity, which underpins scientific discoveries and economic growth.
“This COP must operationalise the mechanism that has been agreed — to ensure that when countries share genetic information, they share benefits — equitably,” said the UN Secretary-General.
By Hadeer Elhadary, Lead Journalist, ESG Mena – Arabic.