UN Biodiversity Conference COP16 Marks Major Wins for Indigenous Peoples, Falls Short on Climate Finance

The U.S. is one of only 17 countries across the globe classified as a megadiverse country; it is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. Despite this, the U.S. did not get a vote at the United Nations (UN) biodiversity negotiations this year. While all eyes were on the upcoming UN Framework Convention on Combatting Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP29 in Azerbaijan, the UN biodiversity COP16 in Cali, Colombia, was just getting started.

I attended the COP16 as the Youth Delegation's U.S. focal point at the negotiations, working to connect them to the massive American network of research organizations, NGOs, state delegations, and federal representatives in attendance.

What is the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity?

Seth Thomas at COP16. Credit: Abi Gardner

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is an international legal treaty which governs all aspects of life on our planet. The three main types of biodiversity are genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity. The treaty encapsulates everything from large landscape conservation to the sharing of DNA sequencing information.

While incredibly broad in scope, an agreed upon decade-long set of goals called the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) guides the treaty. These targets include many of the same objectives as the U.S.'s domestic policy goals such as conserving 30% of lands and waters by 2030. There are 23 targets in total, covering topics such as financing nature conservation, nature-based solutions for climate change, and ensuring equitable participation in decision-making processes.

What is America's Role in the CBD?

The U.S. originally had reservations about provisions in the CBD relating to the sharing of benefits from DNA harvested from wild plants and animals. What would it mean for American corporations if they had to share profits generated from the use of wild animal DNA in products such as pharmaceuticals? The U.S. and the Vatican are the only two countries that did not ratify the convention.

Despite this, the U.S. still has immense influence and importance in shaping CBD decisions. The U.S. federal government possesses a massive amount of technical expertise, so in the early drafting stages of many resolutions they provide expert advice and input. The U.S. is also one of the largest funders of the CBD through their contributions to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and houses some of the foremost biodiversity researcher programs and advocacy organizations in the world.

Where the federal government has stepped back, states and NGOs have stepped up to fill the gap. This year California sent over 100 people in its delegation focusing on sub-national governance and how we can meet global biodiversity goals at the state level. Major American-based environmental groups also sent large delegations, paid for pavilions, and hosted a constant stream of events at the venue.

Their advocacy efforts to shape the treaty and create strong and ambitious agreements were strengthened by their large presence at the COP. While the U.S. cannot vote on any finalized text, this combination of inputs means that they still have a large influence in the outcome of negotiations.

What Were the Key Outcomes of COP16?

COP16 delivered major wins for empowering historically marginalized groups, strengthening synergies between climate change and biodiversity, and the sharing of genetic resources.

• A permanent subsidiary body for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities was created to give them a formal platform for interacting with the CBD.
• The important role of afro-descendants in protecting nature was also formally recognized by the Convention for the first time.
• A motion also passed to create aligned workstreams between the CBD and the UNFCCC to address the climate change and biodiversity crises simultaneously.
• Lastly, after years of negotiations, an agreement was reached on sharing the financial benefits of digital sequence information (DSI). Negotiators agreed to create the "Cali Fund", where a percentage of profits made from the genetic information collected from wildlife can be contributed and the money would be utilized to support marginalized communities and conservation.

Credit: Seth Thomas

This year was the first chance for countries to submit their national biodiversity targets since the adoption of the GBF. However, at the start of COP16 only 26 out of the 196 member countries had met the deadline of submitting their targets before COP and by the end of the conference that number had only risen to 44.

These national targets are important as they are the material used to measure a country's progress toward implementing the GBF. Alongside this shortfall, the parties also failed to agree on how to mobilize biodiversity finance and monitoring and implementation protocols before the conference closed. Due to the urgent need for these agreements before COP17, negotiations will resume in Rome early next year, but the failure to come to timely and ambitious consensus has already cast a shadow on whether these talks will move forward.

In two years the first major stock take of GBF goals will take place to see if the world is on track to meet our goals for safeguarding the environment by the end of the decade. As we race to combat biodiversity loss by 2030, the U.S. federal government, NGOs, and states must actively participate in the CBD, before we lose our chance to make a difference.

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