The meeting dragged on – several delegates left to catch their booked flights home
The COP16 UN meeting in Colombia on biodiversity ended without some of the most important issues being addressed.
– Decisions have been made, but we worked overtime, says Sweden’s head of negotiations, Charlotta Sörqvist.
COP16 was actually supposed to end on Friday, but the meeting dragged heavily over time. And as time went on on Saturday, more delegates disappeared to catch their booked flights home.
In the end there were so few left that no decision could be made. Instead, the meeting was adjourned before some of the most important issues were settled.
No decisions on funding
One of those questions is whether a new fund should be formed to finance the measures required to save nature. There is already an agreement that 20 billion dollars, corresponding to 214 billion kroner, will be collected annually from 2025.
Nor was a decision made on how the goals agreed upon at COP15 in Montréal are to be followed up.
Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) says in a written comment to TT that “if you don’t set up transparency and the right to participate in the environmental work that is being carried out, it will be very difficult to agree on additional funding via new funds”.
She further says that Sweden will “do everything we can to contribute to progress”.
To be resumed
A spokesperson for the organizers told the AFP news agency that the meeting will resume at a later date to address the remaining issues.
Charlotta Sörqvist points out that after all, several decisions have been made at COP16. Among other things, she highlights that a permanent body has been established to represent indigenous peoples and the interests of local communities in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
It is a big decision that we are happy about.
Share the profits
Another major issue that has been decided is that a fund should be created to distribute the profits from digital genetic information.
The data is called digital sequence information (DSI) and often comes from species found in poor countries. The information can be used to create new products – food, medicine and makeup – from which the developers can earn billions.
The fund aims to share a certain part of the profits with the communities from which the species come.
Then you can use these profits to support projects with biodiversity, says Charlotta Sörqvist.
Fact: This is COP16
The UN summit on biological diversity, COP16, took place in Cali, Colombia, starting on October 21.
COP stands for Conference of the parties and refers to the parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The number 16 indicates which meeting in the order it is.
The meeting is usually held every two years. Most recently, in 2022, Canada’s Montreal hosted. The historic agreement reached there includes 23 action targets and is known as the Kunming–Montréal GBF (Global Biodiversity Framework).
The addition of Kunming comes from the fact that the Chinese city would have hosted the meeting, something that was changed as a result of China’s covid restrictions at the time.
Facts: Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variation that exists within and between species and habitats. Slightly simplified – how many living organisms are there.
Biodiversity contributes to functioning ecosystems, which in turn is a prerequisite for us humans to get food on the table, clean water and fresh air.
The crisis for biodiversity is acute and scientists warn that the world is heading for a sixth mass extinction. For example, vertebrate populations have declined by 70 percent since 1970.
Even in Sweden, several reports have shown a serious situation and negative trend for biological diversity. Currently, more than 4,700 species are red-listed here.
Sources: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and SLU