Contrary to predictions about an extension on Saturday of the negotiations in Cali, in Colombia, President Susana Muhamad of the 16my conference of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) assured that the final plenary session would take place on Friday 1Ahem November, in the afternoon, but which promised to be “exciting”given the number of unresolved issues.
“It is a very complex negotiation, with many interests, many parties (…)And that means everyone has to give up something.”said Susana Muhamad, also Colombian Minister of the Environment.
The largest international conference on biodiversity begins its last official day on Friday, without certainty about whether or not a North-South financial impasse will be unblocked, which has relegated the global roadmap to stop the destruction of living beings here to the background. to 2030.
Thursday, under alternating rain, Mme Muhammad increased the number of confidential bilateral meetings. The objective is to finalize the compromise texts that must be presented on Friday to bring together rich and developing countries, whose positions on financial issues have been almost unchanged since the opening of the summit on October 21.
“Success fades”
“The Colombian presidency has not created the conditions for success (…). The reality is that success eludes us.”lamented Aleksandar Rankovic, of the Common Initiative think tank, to Agence France-Presse.
COP16, two years after the Kunming-Montreal agreement, had the mission of strengthening the world’s timid efforts to implement this roadmap aimed at saving the planet and living beings from deforestation, overexploitation, climate change and pollution. , all caused by humanity.
The agreement foresees 23 objectives to be achieved between now and 2030, such as placing 30% of land and seas in protected areas, halving the risks of pesticides and the introduction of invasive species, reducing harmful subsidies to agriculture intensive or fossil fuels of 500,000 million dollars per year, etc.
The agreement also plans to increase annual global spending on nature to $200 billion. Of this amount, developed countries have committed to increasing their annual aid to $30 billion in 2030 (compared to around $15 billion in 2022, according to the OECD).
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Record
But the way to mobilize that money and distribute it is the main point of tension of the summit, already presented as a success by Colombia for its record attendance (23,000 people) and for having transformed Cali into a great popular nature forum, despite to the threat. of guerrilla warfare.
Rich countries oppose multiplication of funds
Developing countries strongly demand the creation of a new fund, under the authority of the COP, more favorable to their interests than current multilateral funds, such as the Global Environment Fund, considered difficult to access.
On the other hand, rich countries, particularly the European Union (in the absence of the United States, which is not a signatory to the convention), consider the multiplication of funds that fragment aid without providing new money to be counterproductive. according to them, in the private sector and in emerging countries.
In the background, all these actors are preparing to repeat the same battle, but in ten times greater quantities, during the COP29 on climate, in Baku, Azerbaijan. This oil and gas country in the Caucasus had hoped to host the COP17 on biodiversity in 2026. But Armenia, its historic rival, took away this mission by winning an unprecedented vote of countries on Thursday night to resolve the issue.
Less than a quarter of countries have established a national plan
It is at this COP17 where countries will have to take stock and possibly strengthen their efforts. But its credibility depends on complex rules, under negotiation in Cali, and which have not yet achieved consensus. But time is running out: six years from the goal, only 44 of the 196 countries have established a national plan that presents how they intend to implement the Kunming-Montreal agreement, and 119 have presented commitments on all or part of the objectives, according to the count
Discussions are also stalling on the adoption of a mechanism so that the profits of companies (cosmetics and pharmaceuticals in the lead) thanks to the digitized genetic sequences of plants and animals are shared with the communities that have preserved them. “It is not a donation, it is a legitimate payment”defended Marina Silva, Minister of the Environment of Brazil.
Countries are also debating the issue of granting indigenous peoples, guardians of preserved and biodiversity-rich territories, a strengthened official status in the CBD, but Russia and Indonesia blocked its adoption on Thursday, according to the presidency.
