The conference on saving the environment enters the final day with no agreement on funding

The world's biggest conservation conference enters its final day in Colombia on Friday with negotiators at odds over how best to finance plans to “halt and reverse” species loss.

Amid complaints that the talks could go on for an extra day, conference president Susana Muhamad said Friday's closing session promised to be “heart-stopping” given the number of unresolved issues.

“It's a complex negotiation, with many interests, many parties… and that means everyone has to give up something,” Muhamad, Colombia's environment minister, told reporters on Thursday.

With about 23,000 registered delegates, the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of the UN which opened in Cali on October 21, is the largest meeting ever.

This event follows the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework that was agreed in Canada two years ago, where it was decided that 200 billion dollars per year should be available for biodiversity by 2030.

This must include 20 billion dollars a year from rich countries to poor countries to reach the 23 goals of the UN to “stop and reverse” environmental destruction by 2030, and to put 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection.

COP16 was tasked with assessing, and scaling up, progress towards achieving the targets.

But discussions about funding mechanisms have failed to move forward, observers and delegates say, as a new study this week revealed that more than a quarter of the plants and animals surveyed are at risk of extinction.

– 'A chance to act' –

Developing countries have asked for more money.

They also want a brand new fund under the umbrella of the UN biological conference, where all parties – rich and poor – will have representation in decision-making.

Rich countries insist they are on track to meet their funding targets, and many oppose yet another new fund.

European officials pointed Thursday to deadly floods in Spain as a reminder of the damage caused by human destruction of the environment, and urged delegates to the failed talks to “take action.”

European Commission Ambassador Florika Fink-Hooijer said the “tragedy” in eastern and southern Spain this week, with at least 158 ​​people dead and dozens still missing, highlights the link between biodiversity loss and human-caused climate change.

Droughts and floods exacerbated by global warming are causing the loss of plant species, including trees that absorb the carbon that warms the planet, in a vicious cycle of man-made land degradation.

“If we work on biodiversity, we can at least moderate some of the climate impacts,” Fink-Hooijer, director-general of the European Commission for the Environment, told reporters.

“In this COP, we really have an opportunity to act,” he added.

– 'The clock is ticking' –

Another point of contention among delegates concerns how best to share the benefits of sequenced genetic data derived from animals and plants with the communities from which they derive.

Such information, much of it from species found in poor countries, has been used prominently in drugs and cosmetics that have made their developers billions.

COP15 had agreed to the creation of a “multinational effort” to share the benefits of digital information, “including a global fund.”

But negotiators still need to resolve basic questions such as who pays, how much, in which fund, and to whom the money should go.

The UN chief Antonio Guterres, who stopped in Cali for two days this week with five heads of state and a number of government ministers to add momentum to the negotiations, reminded delegates on Wednesday that humanity has already changed three quarters of the world, and two. -a third of its water.

Urging negotiators to “speed up” progress, he warned: “The clock is ticking. The survival of our planet's biodiversity — and our survival — is on the line.”

Representatives of Indigenous peoples and local communities staged protests at COP16 to demand more rights and protections, as delegates internally debated a proposal to create a full body of representatives under the CBD.

Again, no final agreement was reached.

COP16 parties voted on Thursday that Armenia will host its next conference in 2026.

mlr/jgc