The COP16 biodiversity ended on Saturday in Cali, failing to reach an agreement on financing the roadmap that humanity has set to stop the destruction of nature by 2030.
Negotiations were suspended in the morning by the Colombian president of the summit when Susana Muhamad noticed that the quorum of delegates had lost, leaving to catch their plane after a sleepless night in plenary. “It’s over,” Susana Muhamad told AFP, from the stand where she was congratulating herself with her teams.
Despite the failure of crucial negotiations on financing and on a monitoring mechanism, supposed to ensure that countries fulfill their commitments made two years ago in Montreal to save nature.
Several decisions
The Colombian presidency, however, is pleased to have obtained the adoption of decisions which it had made a priority: a reinforced status for indigenous peoples in the biodiversity COPs, a text on the recognition of “Afro-descendants”, and the implementation of a multilateral fund (read frames).
The latter aims to share with developing countries the profits made by companies thanks to the digitized genome of plants and animals in their territories.
After more than ten hours of bitter nocturnal debates on Saturday, the countries had finally tackled the most explosive subject of the conference: how to achieve by 2030 the goal of increasing global spending on food to $200 billion per year. save nature, including thirty billion in aid from rich countries.
Fixed positions
To achieve this, the Colombian presidency presented a road map including the creation of a new fund for nature, which is refused by rich countries, hostile to the multiplication of multilateral development aid funds.
As expected, the speech of Brazil, Colombia’s main supporter, in response to those of the EU, Japan and Canada, revealed positions that were still frozen after twelve days of summit. Panama then asked the Colombian presidency to verify the quorum. This being no longer filled, this is the reason given for suspending the closing plenary.
“Of course this makes the potential weaker and slower” of the UN process, supposed to remedy the nature crisis which threatens the prosperity of humanity, declared Ms. Muhamad. “The Colombian government has mobilized a lot (…) the Colombian people have given everything, (…) but in the end, it depends on the parties and the negotiation process,” she justified, on the verge tears.
Switzerland did not stand out
Switzerland has not made its contribution, noted BirdLife, Pro Natura and the WWF on Saturday in a joint press release. It has not presented a national action plan for its biological diversity and has not provided an “appropriate” financial contribution for global biodiversity. She remained behind, they deplore.
States were to present their action plans during COP16. At the end of the Convention, 119 countries have done so, but not Switzerland. “Without real measures, the protection of biodiversity remains an empty promise,” considers Raffael Ayé, director of BirdLife Switzerland.
For its part, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) considers that progress has been made towards the implementation of the global framework for biodiversity, even if the financing remains very controversial within the signatory states of the Convention.
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