A make-or-break second meeting of COP16 delegates finally ended with a landmark agreement in the early hours of Friday morning.
A ‘make or break’ meeting in Rome has ended with a pivotal agreement on how to advance global biodiversity and conservation efforts.
The original COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia, was suspended without any formal conclusion on 2 November after running over by 12 hours. The reconvened meeting dragged on into the early hours of Friday, 28 February, with delegates determined to reach an agreement.
As the summit concluded, the room erupted in applause at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation headquarters in Rome. Susana Muhamad, COP16 President, said some of her team were brought to tears by the emotionally charged conclusion to the meeting.
“These days of work in Rome have demonstrated the commitment of the Parties to advance the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework,” says Muhamad. “We appreciate the willingness of all countries and the Secretariat of the Convention for their dedication to continue strengthening the global biodiversity agenda. Only by working together can we make Peace with Nature a reality.”
While environmental groups largely celebrate the outcome of the meeting, many still warn that this is just the beginning of the hard work ahead.
“State parties have taken a step in the right direction,” says Efraim Gomez, Global Policy Director at WWF International. “However, this necessary step is not sufficient. Now, the hard work starts.”
Gomez warns there is still concern that developed nations are not on track to deliver their commitment of raising $20 billion (€19.2 bn) a year for developing nations.
“Investing in nature is existential,” he says. “It is a global life insurance.”
“No matter where you live, what job you have, or the economy you rely on, nature is the foundation of it all,” says Jill Hepp, biodiversity policy lead at Conservation International.
“Today, in Rome, countries broke through a longstanding policy deadlock and agreed to a timebound plan that will result in the selection of a permanent financial mechanism designed to help ensure funding reaches the most biodiverse places on earth.”
What was agreed upon at COP 16?
After what the parties called ‘intense negotiation,’ the COP16 participants hammered out an agreement that will see $200 billion (€192 bn) a year pledged by 2030.
This includes a plan to raise $20 billion (€19.2 bn) in annual conservation financing for developing nations, rising to $30 billion (€28.9 bn) a year by 2030.
However, a decision on a new fund, intended to help accelerate the flow of financing to projects, was deferred until 2028.
African and Latin American countries demanded a new fund, arguing that the way they access this money at present is inefficient and unfair. Donor countries fought the proposal, saying it would be expensive to set up and manage.
In the end, delegates agreed on a process to decide whether a new fund would be created. It was small progress, but a hard-won compromise that is seen as a victory for nature.
Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said that through the supporting measures agreed at COP 16, “the world will have given itself the means to close the biodiversity finance gap.”
Countries have identified a biodiversity funding gap of $700 billion (€670 bn) a year. In a landmark agreement in 2022, parties agreed to mobilise at least $200 billion (€192 bn) annually by 2030 from public and private sources, with an interim target of $20 billion (€19.2 bn) in 2025.
“The money is there. Governments are using billions in support of activities that destroy nature,” says Anders Haug Larsen, Advocacy Director at Rainforest Foundation Norway. “Now, it’s time to fund activities that actively protect and restore the precious nature we have on this planet.”
At the COP16 talks, participants also established the Cali Fund. It is designed to collect contributions from industries that commercially benefit from genetic resources, such as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
At least 50 per cent of the Cali Fund’s resources will be directed to Indigenous peoples and local communities, acknowledging their role as custodians of biodiversity. However, at the close of the conference in Rome, the fund remains empty.
What does this mean for nature and biodiversity?
The resumed COP16 talks fleshed out mechanisms for commitments made at COP15, and specifically the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted in 2022.
The GBF serves as a global roadmap for halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, and achieving a full ecological recovery by 2050. It has been hailed as the equivalent to the Paris Agreement but for biodiversity.
Among the 23 specific targets set by the framework for the next decade are measures to protect 30 per cent of the planet’s land, freshwater and marine areas by 2030, known as the 30×30 target. It also contains targets to phase out subsidies that harm biodiversity, cut plastic pollution and pesticide use, and reduce invasive species by 50 per cent.
While the establishment of the GBF set ambitious targets, COP16 was critical for finalising how these targets will be financed, monitored and implemented. The agreed roadmap sets out key activities and decision-making milestones leading up to the 17th, 18th and 19th meetings of the parties.
“While this is a moment to celebrate, we also need to see action and innovation immediately following these decisions,” notes Hepp.
“Now that there is a path forward on how funding will flow, we all must take ambitious action to accomplish our collective goals. It’s more important than ever for countries to finalise and start to implement their national biodiversity plans, and use the monitoring framework to track progress towards 2030.”
