UN biodiversity summit opens with call for 'significant' funding

CALI

Chestnut-fronted macaw fly previous to the COP16 Summit in Cali, Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia, on Oct. 18, 2024

The world's biggest nature protection conference opened in Colombia on Monday with the United Nations chief calling for countries to "convert words into action" and fatten a fund seeking to address biodiversity loss.

On the eve of the official start of the conference, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged "significant investment" in the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) created last year, as well as "commitments to mobilize other sources of public and private finance."

"Those profiting from nature must contribute to its protection and restoration," Guterres said in a video played to delegates gathered in the western city of Cali.

The GBFF was created last year to help countries achieve the goals of the so-called Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted in Canada in 2022 with 23 targets to "halt and reverse" the loss of nature by 2030.

So far, countries have made about $250 million in commitments to the fund, according to monitoring agencies.

The fund is part of a broader agreement made in Montreal two years ago for countries to mobilize at least $200 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity, including $20 billion per year by 2025 from rich nations to help developing ones.

Guterres highlighted that destroying nature increases conflict, hunger and disease, fuels poverty and negatively impacts economic growth.

"A collapse in nature's services, such as pollination, and clean water, would see the global economy lose trillions of dollars a year, with the poorest hardest hit," he said.

About 12,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries, including 140 government ministers and a dozen heads of state are expected at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), running until Nov. 1.

Themed "Peace with Nature," it has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to ensure the 23 U.N. targets can be met.