With two just days to go to the closure of UN talks in Colombia on ways to halt and reverse nature loss, delegates were at odds Wednesday on how best to finance the endeavor. The talks that started in Cali on October 21 are meant to assess, and ramp up, progress on national plans and funding to achieve 23 UN targets agreed in 2022 to stop species destruction. With some 23,000 registered delegates, the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the biggest meeting of its kind ever.
It is a followup to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in Canada two years ago, where it was agreed that $200 billion per year be made available for biodiversity by 2030. This must include $20 billion per year going from rich to poor nations to reach the targets, which include placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection by 2030. UN chief Antonio Guterres, in Cali seeking to add impetus to the talks, reminded delegates Wednesday that humanity has already altered three-quarters of Earth's land surface, and two-thirds of its waters.
Urging negotiators to "accelerate" progress, he warned: "The clock is ticking. The survival of our planet’s biodiversity -– and our own survival –- are on the line." To achieve the framework's goals, Guterres said, "we need much more" funding from governments and the private sector.
Yet, behind closed doors, negotiations on finance remain stuck. "So far, since COP15, we have not seen .