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© Lora Denis
Flooding along the Don Valley Parkway, Toronto © Graeme Bunton CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Countries from around the world are gathering to address the biodiversity and climate crises at separate global conferences in October and November. Beginning October 21 and lasting until November 11, the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity is being held in Cali, Colombia. Later, from November 11 – 22, the 2024 Climate Change Conference will be hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan for the 29th annual meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Together, these meetings represent the collective will of 196 countries and their commitment to mobilize efforts against the impacts of the ongoing biodiversity and climate crises. However, despite their common theme, their differences in agenda items and goals form a notable disconnect between the two conferences, namely on the interrelated nature of biodiversity and climate change.
COP16 is the first conference of its kind to occur following the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15, which took place in December of 2022 in Montreal, Canada. As such, COP16 is especially important as it will provide a forum to review the current state of the biodiversity framework, measure the initial steps that have been taken by its members, and determine the best path forward to ensure continual, effective progress.
To that end, National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) are a key aspect of the framework, and thus far, 25 countries (including Canada) have published their updated plans, while 47 other countries have published their own national biodiversity commitments. Another important element of the framework is the commitment to protect 30% of the world’s lands and waters by 2030. In 2024, 17.5% of land and 8.5% of marine areas are currently protected.
As encouraging as this is, progress remains slow and incremental. Of the 196 countries that have ratified the biodiversity framework, 170 missed the deadline to submit their NBSAPs. Of the 17 megadiverse countries – which account for 70% of global biodiversity among their ecosystems – only five produced their NBSAPs. Even Colombia, the host country for COP16, has not presented their plans, although they have expressed their intention to do so during the conference.
From the outset, it is evident that the biodiversity agenda needs greater momentum and can be elevated with further support during the climate talks at COP29, yet such topics are not the current priority for the UN presidency of Azerbaijan, who have stressed the importance of enhancing international cooperation in meeting the 1.5°C goal.
The central issue of COP29 is climate financing, implementing the tools and positioning the resources needed to fund sustainable projects, reduce emissions, and build resilience within developing countries. Additional focus areas will include discussions about transitioning to clean energy, supporting vulnerable communities, establishing accessible financing frameworks, and building solutions that prioritize inclusivity for Indigenous Peoples or other marginalized groups.
Biodiversity and ecosystem services are vital to the continued well-being of the planet, yet the fact that these issues are being sidelined at COP29 is inconsistent with the principles of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, goals 14 and 15 pertaining to life below water and life on land, respectively, synergize well with the goal to protect 30% of the world’s lands and waters by 2030. Continuing this synergy at COP29 by highlighting the importance of biodiversity conservation as a nature-based climate solution would ensure the ongoing consistency in desired outcomes.
Protecting and restoring nature is fundamental to building climate resilience and should be integral to any global climate conference. These crises are not mutually exclusive and cannot be effectively addressed in isolation. Discussions and solutions should then be comprehensive as much as they are multilateral – the importance of global biodiversity is too critical to ignore. Therefore, it is imperative that any biodiversity progress made at COP16 is carried forward into COP29.
To learn more about the Convention on Biological Diversity and COP16, as well as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and COP29, visit their homepages.
© Lena Morrison