Balance: what COP16 in Cali means after its first week of work

Negotiations within the framework of the COP16 in Cali They advance slowly, but they flow, According to experts, while organizations and technicians ask for more commitment from the countries to ensure a positive result at the end of the summit, they will resume the conversation this Monday when the high-level segment begins with the environment ministers of a hundred countries.

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“On the positive side, the conversation is flowing, it hasn’t stagnated which has been super good, I think we have good discussions“he explains to the agency EFE Patricia Zurita, head of Strategy at Conservation International (CI), who appears “hopeful” and remembers that in some COPs “the conversation does not move.”

So far, the general feeling is that we are on the right path, as highlighted on Friday the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia, Susana Muhamad, who also serves as president of COP16.

Muhamad said that negotiations are progressing “in a positive way“, and explained that several documents are already ready.

Organizations such as WWF have also been satisfied with “progress on key issues such as biodiversity and health, sustainable wildlife management and addressing factors driving biodiversity decline“.

(See: Lessons from covid and Ebola at COP16: ‘protect the planet to avoid viruses’).

In this sense, Senior Director of Global Policy and Advocacy at WWF International, Lin Li, expresses that “Despite this week’s constructive talks and some promising progress on the ‘easier’ COP16 issues, significant trust-building work is still required on funding.“.

Zurita comments that “it has been an introductory week, of good discussions, with good signs that serious commitments can be made next week.”

Starting on Monday, the discussion will resume, now with the presence of senior officials from the countries in charge of the environment, and Final decisions are expected to be made next Friday.

The buts

However, there is some misgiving because at this Biodiversity Summit the countries had to arrive with a task done, to present their National Biodiversity Strategies and Plans (NBSAP). So far, only 35 countries have done so and another 100 have presented at least some updated goal.

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“But it’s not enough,” he says. Lina Barrera, Director of Global Policy and Government Affairs at Conservation International, who alerts countries that “we need much more.”

This, for Zurita, reflects “a lack of sense of urgency”, although a positive part stands out and that is that “Despite the delays, the countries are willing to define a deadline to deliver the strategies“.

To which he adds that the most complicated issue to negotiate is the mobilization of resources, which will depend on whether this COP, as well as the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework, “goes well or goes badly.”

In this regard, Colombia has proposed a comprehensive financing initiative that proposes a reform of the international financial architecture so that it is more aligned with biodiversity goals and includes a reform of the debt of developing countries so that they have more to invest in nature, explains Barrera.

“There is an opening to consider the package, but the details are what are going to be complicated“adds the expert.

(See: Afro communities demand more participation and recognition in COP16 negotiations).

In the matter of financing, the most complicated point is discussing where the funds will go and, Although two funds already exist, there are proposals to create a new one.

“It is going a little slow because there is a lot to do, and some of the issues are very complicated, but it is clear that there is good will and I think that Colombia’s proposal is going to help and they obviously, as hosts, have the responsibility of carrying out the negotiations, and I think they did it well“concludes Barrera.

For his part, Zurita remembers: “The planet is in the emergency room and we are not moving fast“.

EFE