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COP16: What Is It, What Happened and What Next

By Live Ocean
7 November '24
Read time: 2 min
Article Summary​
The global summit, COP16, aimed at halting the destruction of nature ended last week with some breakthroughs, but left many key issues unresolved.

Aotearoa is a global hotspot for biodiversity so the events of COP16 and New Zealand’s involvement are critical to the progress of restoring and protecting the ocean and the life in it.

Aotearoa joined a group of seven countries pledging a total of US$163m towards the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (New Zealand contributing NZ$20m).

Coming up next is COP29 for the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention. 

The COP16 summit brought together governments, NGOs, indigenous leaders and the business community to address the massive nature and biodiversity loss we are seeing.

The global summit, COP16, aimed at halting the destruction of nature ended last week with some breakthroughs, but left many key issues unresolved.

With Aotearoa New Zealand a global hotspot for biodiversity, the events of COP16 and New Zealand’s involvement are critical to the progress of restoring and protecting the ocean and the life in it.

As part of our summary series, let’s dive into four burning questions
–
1. What is COP16
2. What happened at the summit
3. What does it mean for Aotearoa New Zealand
4. What next?

1. What is it?

The COP16 summit, held in Cali Columbia, brought together governments, NGOs, indigenous leaders and the business community to address the massive nature and biodiversity loss we are seeing rapidly accelerate. Meeting every two years, the Conference of Parties (COP) is on its 16th global meeting to address the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

The topic of the discussions: The challenges and opportunities we face to reverse habitat loss, protect endangered species and preserve the ecosystems on which all life depends. The goal of the conference was to transform the commitments of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework into actionable plans.

2. What Happened?

Wins:
Governments were able to make some significant breakthroughs.

  • They agreed on a global levy on products made using genetic data from nature, potentially creating one of the world’s largest biodiversity conservation funds.
  • They formally incorporated Indigenous communities in the official decision-making of the UN biodiversity process, in what negotiators described as a watershed moment for indigenous representation.
  • Agreement was also reached on a text linking biodiversity loss and climate change, which COP16 President Susana Muhamad said was essential ahead of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, later this month.

 

Losses:
Governments failed to reach a consensus on key issues.

  • A strategy for raising money to fund nature protection. At the last COP, countries had committed to raising $200bn a year by 2030, including $20bn to be given by richer countries to developing countries by 2025. BUT richer countries blocked a proposal to set up a new fund to help poorer nations restore their depleted natural environments. The decision, taken countries including the European Union, Japan, and Canada, and New Zealand left African and Latin American nations angry and some to refuse to engage in talks on other issues.
  • Governments also failed to agree on how this decade’s targets will be monitored. 23 targets and four goals were agreed upon at COP15 in Montreal two years ago. It is understood that most countries agreed on the draft monitoring framework for the deal but were unable to sign off on it after they ran out of time while discussing other more divisive topics.
  • They also ran out of time to approve the Convention on Biological Diversity budget for the next two years.

3. What About Aotearoa New Zealand?

Aotearoa joined a group of seven countries pledging a total of US$163m towards the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (New Zealand contributing NZ$20m).

However, it also was part of a group opposed to setting up a dedicated fund to pay for nature restoration in global south nations, arguing it would complicate the funding landscape without necessarily raising new money.

New Zealand also failed to submit a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to show its commitment to the 30×30 pledge, the global target to protect 30 percent of the planet for nature by 2030 (agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity at COP15).

A signatory to the pledge, current Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said in September: “New Zealand is not required… to report on its achievement in relation to the global target… and has no plans to do so”.

 

 

Aotearoa is a biodiversity hotspot with up to 80% of the country’s indigenous species living in its marine environment, around 44% of which are thought to be endemic, and nearly one-quarter of the world’s seabird species breeding in New Zealand – more than anywhere else on earth.

4. What Next?

Coming up next is COP29 for the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention where governments will focus on scaling up and unlocking climate finance flows to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect lives and livelihoods from the worsening impacts of climate change. The focus on climate and nature will also flow into the COP29 talks.

Conversations on biodiversity will pick up again in the next interim meeting next year in Bangkok however the next COP17 for biodiversity bringing together all parties to make significant progress will not happen until 2026 in Armenia.

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