What’s going on here?
World leaders gathered in Cali, Colombia for two weeks for COP16, the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference. But it ended in chaos on Saturday without any major breakthroughs or agreements, after talks overran and delegates had to leave to catch their flights home.
What does this mean?
COP16 was the first big summit on nature and biodiversity since 2022. It was a key moment for governments to discuss how to halt the destruction of nature, and renew commitments to ‘30 by 30’, a pledge to protect 30% of the earth for nature by 2030.
But talks ended in disarray on Saturday, without reaching agreement on key topics such as how to fund the work needed and how to monitor progress towards targets. Delegates reported running out of time to discuss important issues, after they were left until last on the agenda.
Negotiations like these have gone over time before, most recently at COP28. The difference at COP16 was that many nations’ delegates didn’t have the budget to rebook their flights home, and couldn’t stay on to keep negotiating.
Why should we care?
This summit was supposed to keep the world on track with progress towards the ‘30 by 30’ deal agreed at COP15. That historic agreement,the Global Biodiversity Framework to protect 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030, was hard won.
“Two years on, the vast majority of nature targets agreed in Montreal [during COP15] regrettably currently still feel like unfunded words on paper”, according to Catherine Weller, director of global policy at nature NGO Fauna & Flora.
But there were wins too. There was an agreement on a global levy on products made using genetic data from nature, which will generate revenue for nature-rich countries. It was also an inclusive COP, with a permanent seat at the table for Indigenous peoples and local communities in the UN biodiversity decision making process.
Now that COP16 is over without key agreements in place, delegates will have to pick up where they left off at interim talks next year.
Be curious
📰From the Curious archives: read COP28 roundup: the promising, the cringe and the downright scary
🌍Find out more about why we should protect 30% of the oceans by 2030
