a “thrilling” ending, promises the president of the conference

Contrary to the predictions on an extension on Saturday of the negotiations in Cali, in Colombia, President Susana Muhamad of the 16^e conference of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) assured that the final plenary would take place on Friday 1^is November, in the evening, but that it promised to be “thrilling”given the number of unresolved questions.

“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 therefore begins its last official day on Friday, without certainty on the unblocking or not of a North-South financial standoff, which has relegated to the background the global road map to stop the destruction of alive by 2030.

Thursday, under an alternation of showers, M^me Muhamad increased the number of confidential bilateral meetings. The objective is to finalize the compromise texts that it must present on Friday to bring together the rich and developing countries, whose positions on financial questions have been almost immutable since the opening of the summit on October 21.

“Success fades away”

“The Colombian presidency has not created the conditions for success (…). The reality is that success is slipping away”lamented Aleksandar Rankovic, from the Common Initiative think tank, to Agence France-Presse.

COP16, two years after the Kunming-Montreal agreement, had the mission of enhancing the world's timid efforts to apply this road map intended to save the planet and living beings from deforestation, overexploitation, climate change and pollution, all caused by humanity.

The agreement provides for 23 objectives to be achieved by 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 intensive agriculture or fossil fuels of 500 billion 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).

But the way to mobilize this 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 the threat of guerrilla warfare.

Rich countries opposed to the multiplication of funds

Developing countries are strongly demanding the creation of a new fund, placed 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, in particular the European Union (in the absence of the United States, which is not a signatory to the convention), consider the multiplication of funds which fragment aid without providing new money to be counterproductive. to be found, according to them, in the private sector and in emerging countries.

In the background, all these actors are preparing to replay the same battle, but at ten times higher amounts, during the COP29 on climate, in Baku, Azerbaijan. This oil and gas country in the Caucasus hoped to then host the COP17 biodiversity in 2026. But Armenia, its historic rival, took away this mission by winning an unprecedented vote of countries on Thursday evening to settle the question.

Less than a quarter of countries have established a national plan

It is at this COP17 that countries will have to take stock, and possibly strengthen their efforts. But its credibility depends on complex rules, under negotiation in Cali, and which still do not achieve consensus. But time is running out: six years from the goal, only 44 of the 196 countries have established a national plan presenting how they intend to implement the Kunming-Montreal agreement, and 119 have submitted commitments on all or part of the objectives, according to the count. official, Thursday.

Discussions also stall 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 which have preserved them. “It’s not a donation, it’s a legitimate payment”defended Marina Silva, Brazil's environment minister.

Countries are also debating the question of giving indigenous peoples, guardians of preserved territories rich in biodiversity, a reinforced official status in the CBD, but Russia and Indonesia blocked its adoption on Thursday, according to the presidency.