CBD Urges Nations to Shift to Emergency Mode to Achieve Biodiversity Targets

The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) gathered 204 delegates from 130 country Parties in Cali, Colombia, from October 21 to November 1, 2024. COP16 aims to continue the discussions of COP15 which highlighted the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

“The scale and pace of biodiversity loss are exacerbated by climate change, land degradation and desertification, and pollution and waste in their multiple forms. This triple planetary crisis, and I quote the recent global foresight report by the United Nations Environment Programme, is feeding into human crises, such as conflict for territory and resources, displacement and deteriorating health. This means that what we do at this meeting matters, that what we do at home matters, and matters no less than for the future of mankind,” CBD Executive Secretary Astrid Schomaker stressed in her opening speech for the UN Biodiversity Conference. COP16 is centered on the theme Peace with Nature.

According to Schomaker, nations are progressing in working on the targets of the Framework, but not in the pace needed. Thus, she called for updated national strategies and action plans commensurate to the goals of the Framework. One of the immediate actions necessary is to finalize the mechanisms for planning, monitoring, reporting, and review of the implementation of the Framework.

“We must step up action for nature. Science tells us that we are lurching towards dangerous tipping points. Global action must shift to emergency mode,” she adds.

Read the transcript of the speech and details of COP16 from the CBD website.