AFP
October 29, 2024
Colombia Environment Minister and COP16 president Susana Mohamad says more money is needed for a biodiversity fund - Copyright AFP Luis ACOSTA
The world’s biggest nature protection conference, under way in Cali, has placed biodiversity loss “on an equal footing” with the climate emergency, the meeting’s Colombian president told AFP in an interview Monday.
“I think we have already achieved a first objective which was to raise the political profile of the… issue of biodiversity, put it on an equal footing with the… climate issue,” Susana Muhamad, who is also Colombia’s environment minister, said of progress made.
The 16th so-called Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, has attracted a record 23,000 registered delegates and some 1,200 journalists to Cali, according to organizers.
Thousands of activists and residents have also flocked to the so-called “green zone” for cultural activities and demonstrations.
On Tuesday, UN chief Antonio Guterres, six heads of state and 115 ministers will join the conference in southwest Colombia.
Themed “Peace with Nature,” COP16 has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to achieve 23 nature protection goals agreed in Canada two years ago.
Muhamad told AFP that the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), created to give effect to those goals, “needs more money.”
To unlock more funds, she said, “it would be very helpful if developed countries could increase the messages that they are going to meet the development financing target” before leaving Cali.
– ‘Words into action’ –
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 urged the 196 signatories to the biodiversity convention to “convert words into action” and fatten the GBFF.
So far, countries have made about $250 million in commitments to the fund, according to monitoring agencies.
Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework finalized in 2022, countries must mobilize at least $200 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity, including $20 billion per year by 2025 from rich nations to help developing ones.
A key goal of the summit is to agree on a mechanism for sharing the profits of genetic information taken from plants and animals — for medicinal use for instance — with the communities they come from.
With about a million known species worldwide estimated to be at risk of extinction, delegates have their work cut out for them in Cali.
There are only five years left to achieve the 23 UN targets, which include placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection by 2030.
Big guns descend on Cali for final push in UN biodiversity talks
By AFP
By AFP
October 28, 2024
A report issued by nature watchdogs said only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are within protected and conserved areas - Copyright AFP CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA
Mariëtte Le Roux
Heads of state, ministers and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrive in Cali Tuesday hoping to add impetus to grinding talks on ways to save nature from human destruction.
The 16th so-called Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to achieve 23 nature protection goals agreed in Canada two years ago.
Themed “Peace with Nature,” the summit has been bogged down in disagreement about modalities of funding, as well as sharing the profits of digitally sequenced plant and animal genetic data — used in medicines and cosmetics — with the communities they come from.
Delegates have no time to waste.
There are only five years left to achieve the 23 UN targets, which include placing 30 percent of land, water and ocean under protection by 2030.
A report issued by nature watchdogs said Monday that only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are within documented protected and conserved areas.
“This leaves a land area roughly the size of Brazil and Australia combined, and at sea an area larger than the Indian Ocean, to be designated by 2030 in order to meet the global target,” said the Protected Planet Report.
Also on Monday, an update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened animals and plants found more than one in three species of tree are at risk of extinction worldwide.
These include many that provide humans with timber, medicine, food and fuel.
More than 46,000 plant and animal species out of more than 166,000 assessed for the Red List were found to be threatened with extinction.
– ‘More money’ needed –
The COP16 has attracted a record 23,000 registered delegates and some 1,200 journalists to Cali, according to organizers, making it the biggest yet.
Thousands of activists and residents have flocked to its so-called “green zone” set up for cultural activities, demonstrations and celebrations.
COP president Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister, told AFP on Monday the summit had placed biodiversity loss “on an equal footing” with the climate change crisis.
But she lamented that a Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) created to help bring about the targets set out two years ago “needs more money.”
So far, countries have made about $400 million in commitments to the fund set up to give effect to the targets under the so-called Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in 2022.
This included pledges of $163 million announced Monday by Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the Canadian province of Quebec.
The Kunming-Montreal framework determined that countries must mobilize $20 billion per year by 2025 from rich nations to help developing ones. The GBFF is just part of this funding.
Of the $20 billion goal, $15 billion a year was reached for 2022, according to the OECD.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Guterres will join the heads of state of Colombia, Armenia, Bolivia, Guinea Bissau, Haiti and Suriname as well as 115 government ministers and 44 deputies in Cali.
The ministers will hopefully “help us make movement on some of these issues,” said CBD spokesman David Ainsworth.
If an issue is “really tight and intractable, negotiators would normally go back to their capitals but if the minister is there, decisions can be made fairly quickly.”
The COP16 runs until Friday.
A report issued by nature watchdogs said only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are within protected and conserved areas - Copyright AFP CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA
Mariëtte Le Roux
Heads of state, ministers and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrive in Cali Tuesday hoping to add impetus to grinding talks on ways to save nature from human destruction.
The 16th so-called Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to achieve 23 nature protection goals agreed in Canada two years ago.
Themed “Peace with Nature,” the summit has been bogged down in disagreement about modalities of funding, as well as sharing the profits of digitally sequenced plant and animal genetic data — used in medicines and cosmetics — with the communities they come from.
Delegates have no time to waste.
There are only five years left to achieve the 23 UN targets, which include placing 30 percent of land, water and ocean under protection by 2030.
A report issued by nature watchdogs said Monday that only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are within documented protected and conserved areas.
“This leaves a land area roughly the size of Brazil and Australia combined, and at sea an area larger than the Indian Ocean, to be designated by 2030 in order to meet the global target,” said the Protected Planet Report.
Also on Monday, an update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened animals and plants found more than one in three species of tree are at risk of extinction worldwide.
These include many that provide humans with timber, medicine, food and fuel.
More than 46,000 plant and animal species out of more than 166,000 assessed for the Red List were found to be threatened with extinction.
– ‘More money’ needed –
The COP16 has attracted a record 23,000 registered delegates and some 1,200 journalists to Cali, according to organizers, making it the biggest yet.
Thousands of activists and residents have flocked to its so-called “green zone” set up for cultural activities, demonstrations and celebrations.
COP president Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister, told AFP on Monday the summit had placed biodiversity loss “on an equal footing” with the climate change crisis.
But she lamented that a Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) created to help bring about the targets set out two years ago “needs more money.”
So far, countries have made about $400 million in commitments to the fund set up to give effect to the targets under the so-called Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in 2022.
This included pledges of $163 million announced Monday by Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the Canadian province of Quebec.
The Kunming-Montreal framework determined that countries must mobilize $20 billion per year by 2025 from rich nations to help developing ones. The GBFF is just part of this funding.
Of the $20 billion goal, $15 billion a year was reached for 2022, according to the OECD.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Guterres will join the heads of state of Colombia, Armenia, Bolivia, Guinea Bissau, Haiti and Suriname as well as 115 government ministers and 44 deputies in Cali.
The ministers will hopefully “help us make movement on some of these issues,” said CBD spokesman David Ainsworth.
If an issue is “really tight and intractable, negotiators would normally go back to their capitals but if the minister is there, decisions can be made fairly quickly.”
The COP16 runs until Friday.
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