The world is experiencing its largest loss of life since the dinosaurs, according to UNEP. Can COP16 reverse imperilled species’ fortunes?
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Today marks the start of the UN biodiversity conference, two years after the last summit secured a global agreement to protect 30 per cent of nature by 2030, known as 30x30.
COP16 - the 16th conference of the parties to the convention on biological diversity (CBD) signed in 1992 - is taking place in Cali, Colombia, from 21 October to 1 November.
After the historic ‘30x30’ goals agreed at COP15, the major focus will be on how countries can actually fulfil this pledge in the remaining six years.
"This is going to be a great opportunity for one of the most biodiverse nations in the world,” says H.E. Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister. “This event sends a message from Latin America to the world about the importance of climate action and the protection of life.”
The world has yet to meet a single target in the history of UN biodiversity agreements. And some initial progress reports on the 30x30 goal are discouraging. Only 9.7 per cent of the ocean is on track to be protected by 2030, according to a new report from a group of NGOs.
But there is a concerted drive for action as the stakes keep rising: Earth’s wildlife populations have shrunk by 73 per cent in just 50 years, according to the latest comprehensive report. And reversing the biodiversity crisis is deeply entwined with tackling the climate crisis.
Across the board, campaigners are looking to the EU to show leadership.
“No more empty promises without action - the newly elected EU leaders and Commission have to pass laws that protect vital ecosystems, guarantee clean water and provide healthy food,” says Špela Bandelj Ruiz, Greenpeace Central & Eastern Europe Biodiversity Campaigner.
“During UN Biodiversity COP16, representatives of the European Commission will be in the spotlight. The whole world will be watching how they deliver on their existing global commitments, but also if they lead the way towards implementing the targets at home, accompanied by adequate funding.”
What was agreed at COP15?
The last UN biodiversity conference in Canada concluded with the Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in December 2022. Its headline commitment was to protect at least 30 per cent of the world's land and water and restore 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems by 2030.
Described by some as the “Paris Agreement for nature”, the GBF also pledges to eliminate or repurpose $500 billion (around €460 bn) of environmentally-damaging subsidies, including for fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, nations should collectively mobilise $200 billion (€184 bn) per year for conservation from public and private sources. Of this, developed countries committed $20 billion (€18.4 bn) per year for developing countries by 2025, rising to $30 billion (€28 bn) by 2030.
But two years on, more than half of the countries which signed up to the $20 billion finance goal are providing less than 50 per cent of their ‘fair share’, according to the ODI think tank.
Governments also agreed to take urgent action on preventing the extinction of species, after recent warnings from scientists that we are bringing about the start of Earth’s sixth mass extinction event.
Though not legally binding, countries are required to demonstrate their progress on meeting the GBF’s four overarching goals and 23 smaller targets through national biodiversity plans.
New national biodiversity targets
New National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) were due by the start of COP16.
Reports suggest that around 80 per cent of governments will meet the deadline - though that doesn’t necessarily indicate a lack of engagement or ambition. “These are complex processes that are meant to be a whole of government,” said Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Countries first have to come up with targets and then develop action plans, with buy-in from ministries, business leaders and community stakeholders to be effective. “That's not happening overnight,” she added.
“For [NBSAPs] to succeed, they must chart a course that protects and restores nature while simultaneously strengthening economies and securing enough food, water and resources for all people to thrive,” writes Crystal Davis from the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Naturally, the national picture varies hugely across the world, in terms of the ecological riches that countries hold and the political power they have to protect them.
WRI notes valuable strides in some of the world’s ‘megadiverse’ countries, home to roughly 70 per cent of the world’s biodiversity. Brazil, for example - encompassing 60 per cent of the Amazon rainforest - managed to reduce its forest loss by 36 per cent last year under the leadership of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Colombia cut primary forest loss by nearly 50 per cent.
But the global research nonprofit still estimates that, worldwide, an area of land almost twice the size of India will be converted to agriculture by 2050.
And of the 17 megadiverse countries, where nature protection has an outsized impact, only five have so far produced NBSAPs according to a CarbonBrief count from last week. Brazil says it is working on a complex, multi-decade strategy.
Centering Indigenous rights
It is well documented that ecosystems are safest in the hands of their traditional custodians - Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
A new report from conservation organisation Fauna & Flora, for example, finds that locally-led conservation projects have greater impact and are more enduring.
“Those living closest to high biodiversity areas are likely to have the best knowledge of their local area, and this expertise should be supported and bolstered by conservation organisations, governments and other stakeholders, not trampled over,” says CEO Kristian Teleki.
Following numerous calls within the Global Biodiversity Framework to recognise Indigenous communities’ rights, COP16 now has the task of turning this into policy.
Crystal Davis, global director of WRI’s Food, Land & Water programme, suggests securing land tenure for Indigenous Peoples and local communities; including their voices and traditional knowledge systems in policy decisions; and delivering more finance to empower them as stewards.
More than a million people have so far backed an Avaaz campaign calling for legal recognition of Indigenous People’s territories, in a petition that also condemn the murder of environmental defenders.
“The biodiversity crisis didn’t happen in a silo”: From COP16 to COP29
Experts also stress the need for joined-up solutions at COP16.
Since the global food system is the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss, our consumption needs to be tackled in a systematic and fair way.
“Countries should link policies on nature protection to policies on food systems and water security in both their national biodiversity plans, due by COP16, and their national climate commitments (NDCs), due in early 2025,” says Davis.
“The biodiversity crisis didn't happen in a silo; its causes are inherently linked to the world's climate and development challenges. Its solutions are, too,” she adds.
The WWF also emphasises that COP16 must pave the way to further integrate nature into climate actions at upcoming climate COPs.
