Close to 200 Nations Set to Mobilize $200 Billion Annually for Biodiversity
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Synopsis
As nations prepare to meet in Rome next week, nearly 200 countries are set to focus on mobilizing $200 billion each year by 2030 to support biodiversity, following earlier negotiations' collapse at COP16. Key financial decisions and strategies for resource mobilization are on the agenda to address unresolved issues.
Key Takeaways
- Close to 200 nations will reconvene to finalize pending biodiversity agenda items.
- The Strategy for Resource Mobilisation aims to secure $200 billion annually by 2030.
- Discussions will include mechanisms for monitoring and reporting biodiversity progress.
- The Cali Fund will launch to share benefits from digital sequence information.
- India's updated NBSAP outlines strategies for biodiversity protection.
New Delhi, Feb 20 (NationPress) Nearly three months following the breakdown of negotiations at the United Nations biodiversity summit, referred to as COP16, the delegation representing vulnerable island states exited, leaving critical financial decisions to secure $200 billion annually by 2030 hindered by the developed nations. Countries will reconvene in Rome next week to tackle the unresolved agenda items.
The previous gathering of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity took place in Cali, Colombia, and was halted due to insufficient quorum.
The primary focus of the upcoming session, scheduled from February 25-27 at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is to work towards adopting a Strategy for Resource Mobilisation aimed at securing $200 billion annually by 2030 from various sources to support global biodiversity initiatives. This includes mobilizing at least $20 billion per year in Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2025 and $30 billion per year by 2030, in accordance with Target 19 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
Target 18 of the KMGBF also addresses the reduction of detrimental incentives by at least $500 billion per year by 2030. Participating nations will further discuss the development of a dedicated global financing instrument for biodiversity, including a roadmap leading up to 2030.
Nearly 200 countries are anticipated to finalize a significant step by completing the monitoring framework agreed upon at COP15. This framework is crucial for implementing the KMGBF, as it establishes the common metrics that parties will utilize to assess progress against the 23 targets, as stated by a spokesperson for the UN biodiversity summit.
Regarding the planning, monitoring, reporting, and review (PMRR) mechanism, nations are expected to make pivotal decisions on how progress in KMGBF implementation will be evaluated at COP17 as part of the planned global stocktake. They will also determine how commitments from non-governmental actors, including youth, women, indigenous peoples, local communities, civil society, the private sector, and sub-national governments, can be incorporated into the PMRR mechanism.
Furthermore, the national reporting template, which includes the main indicators of the monitoring framework, must also be finalized, according to the spokesperson.
On the financial mechanism, countries are expected to endorse the accomplishments of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), encourage additional contributions to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), and provide further guidance to the GEF in light of its upcoming replenishment negotiations. Additional agenda items include decisions on collaboration with other conventions and international organizations, the CBD's multi-year program of work, and the adoption of final reports from COP 16, COPMOP 11 (Cartagena Protocol), and COPMOP 5 (Nagoya Protocol).
The Cali Fund, focused on benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information from genetic resources, will be launched on February 25 alongside the resumed Conference of the Parties (COP).
The formal opening of the Cali Fund will occur with the signing of a pact between UNEP, the CBD Secretariat, UNDP, and the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office. The Cali Fund is groundbreaking as it is a private sector-led fund established by the COP to the CBD, designed to ensure that monetary benefits from using DSI are returned to nature and support the self-determined rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
Among the positive developments, 119 countries have aligned their national targets with global biodiversity protection goals within two years of the KMGBF. This indicates that most nations have now converted global targets into their own, aligning them with national priorities.
At COP16, India introduced an updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) employing a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, detailing strategies to tackle environmental challenges through ecosystem restoration, species recovery programs, and community-led conservation efforts.
The Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Kirti Vardhan Singh, remarked that the updated NBSAP, aligned with the KMGBF, serves as a crucial roadmap to address strategies for halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, with a long-term vision of coexisting harmoniously with nature by 2050.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
