Stockholm (NordSIP) – The two-week long negotiations of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) ended on Saturday 2 November, with an outcome that will weigh heavily on the agenda of COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia in two years’ time. While meaningful progress was made on some issues, COP16 failed to resolve fundamental disagreements over nature finance.
Partial successes for indigenous peoples
Among the positive developments achieved at COP16 in Cali, Colombia was an agreement regarding Digital Sequence Information (DSI). The proposed DSI fund aims to redress the historical imbalance created by corporations from wealthier nations using genetic data, much of which was obtained free of charge from developing nations. The funding will come from a 0.1% levy on firms’ relevant revenues, half of which will be directed towards the indigenous peoples who are custodians of much of the world’s biodiversity. This new fund has the potential to raise significant nature financing from the private sector. However, the fundraising mechanisms will need to be rolled out efficiently at national level, and participation in the DSI fund is deemed voluntary. It remains to be seen whether a critical mass of multinational corporations will choose to take the necessary steps.
COP16 also saw further good news for the representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities from developing nations. These groups have thus far taken part in international biodiversity negotiations on an informal basis at the invitation of various national governments. An agreement was reached to formalise their participation in future nature-related COP meetings, affording them a permanent seat at the negotiating table.
Failure on key agenda points
Unfortunately, despite these achievements the overriding mood as the conference ended was one of frustration and disarray. The event was supposed to finish on Friday 1 November but ended up overrunning until 8:30 am the following day. This served to exacerbate existing perceptions of an uneven playing field favouring wealthier nations, as many delegations from the Global South could not afford to change their return flights. As a result, negotiations on important agenda points were still ongoing when fewer than half of the participating nations were still present. This would have meant that the necessary quorum could not be achieved and the Colombian hosts therefore decided to end proceedings without an agreement on the core issue of the nature finance gap.
The global nature funding agreed in principle at COP15 in Montreal has only partially materialised in the form of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF). This facility is so far well short of the billions of Dollars deemed necessary each year, and developing nations have complained about the fund’s governance structure and difficulties in accessing the funding. Their proposal to set up a new facility under the auspices of the COP organisation was rejected. Delegates have accused wealthy nations of dragging their heels on the matter, with the core question of nature finance left until the latter part of the conference, and ultimately falling victim to the overrun into Saturday.
Another key point of failure at COP16 was a lack of agreement on monitoring mechanisms for the national and international goals in the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework. Among these was a commitment to restore and protect 30% of the planet by 2030, but delegates were unable to sign off on the proposed monitoring framework as the conference ran out of time. The international track record of meeting nature-related targets is poor and putting in place effective verification mechanisms along with adequate nature financing will be crucial for COP17 to be considered a success.
Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) sought to strike a positive note after the conference: “Over the last weeks, we have seen the largest, whole-of-society mobilisation for biodiversity unfold in Cali, triggering interest from around the globe. We have seen Indigenous Peoples and local communities, civil society, businesses and financial institutions, sub-national governments, cities and local authorities, women and youth present remarkable initiatives and action and through it all, this COP delivered a seminal message: the time has come to make peace with nature. From Cali, this UN Biodiversity Conference sent a powerful call to action. It has never been clearer that the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement in a synergistic fashion will make peace with nature within reach.”
The failure to reach consensus at COP16 and the manifest anger of developing nations towards the perceived prevarication by wealthy countries over nature funding mean that the COP secretariat faces an uphill task in seeking to remedy the situation in the run-up to COP17. Moreover, the biannual schedule of the biodiversity-focused COP events compounds the impact of the relative failure of COP16 in the face of the mounting urgency of the crisis in nature.
