Press Release

 

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation

Rome 28.02.2025

Governments agree on the way forward to mobilise the resources needed to protect biodiversity for people and planet.

 Governments agreed on a resource mobilization strategy that will establish the permanent arrangements for the financial mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity and mobilise the mixture of financial instruments needed to close the biodiversity finance gap.

• Parties enhanced the planning, monitoring, reporting and review mechanisms required to measure implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
• The Cali Fund on the sharing of benefits from digital sequence information on genetic resources, was launched, opening a new chapter in mobilising private finance for biodiversity.

 Rome 28 February 2025. Governments agreed early today in Rome on the strategy to raise the funds needed to protect biodiversity and achieve the action targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), bringing the business of the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP16 that was suspended in Cali, Colombia in 2024, to a successful close. 

 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity worked into the early morning hours to hammer out agreements on biodiversity finance, on planning, monitoring, reporting and review, and the full set of indicators to measure global and national progress towards implementing the KMGBF, agreed in Montreal at COP 15 in 2022. 

 “These days of work in Rome have demonstrated the commitment of the Parties to advance the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.  The COP 16 presidency recognises the collective effort to reach consensus of key issues that were left pending in Cali” said Susana Muhamad, Cop 16 President.  “We appreciate the willingness of all countries and the Secretariat of the Convention for their dedication to continue strengthening the global biodiversity agenda.  Only by working together can we make Peace with Nature a reality.”

 “The results of this meeting show that multilateralism works and is the vehicle to build the partnerships needed to protect biodiversity and move us towards Peace with Nature” said Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “We now have a clear mandate to implement Article 21 and 39.  As we do this and implement the other supporting elements for resource mobilization, the world will have given itself the means to close the biodiversity finance gap.”

After intense negotiations, Parties to the Convention agreed on a way forward in terms of resource mobilization with a view to close the global biodiversity finance gap and achieve the target of mobilizing at least 200 billion dollars a year by 2030, including 20 billion USD a year in international flows by 2025, rising to 30 billion USD by 2030. 

 This includes the commitment to establish permanent arrangements for the financial mechanism in accordance with Articles 21 and 39 of the Convention while simultaneously working on improving existing financial instruments.  It outlines the main principles and steps that will shape the evolution of these existing financial instruments, and any others that may be created.  It also includes a roadmap of the activities and decision-making milestones from now, through the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th meetings of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, until 2030.

The COP also adopted a Strategy for Resource Mobilization that identifies a broad range of instruments, mechanisms and institutions that could be tapped to mobilise the funds needed for implementation of the ambitious Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.  This includes public finance from national and subnational governments, private and philanthropic resources, multilateral development banks, blended finance, and other novel approaches. 

The decision is also aligned with COP guidance to the Global Environment Facility, the interim financial mechanism of the Convention, whose family of funds, in the period of June 2022 to December 2024, approved over 3 billion USD in support of the KMGBF, leveraging more than 22 billion in co-financing, including 1.9 billion from the private sector.  The Global Environment Facility also hosts the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), created in response to a request from COP 15.

Mechanism for Planning, Monitoring, Reporting and Review (PMRR): Responsibility and transparency in how the world measures progress for the KMGBF

Parties further enhanced the monitoring framework for the KMGBF, agreed upon at COP 15. The monitoring framework is essential to the implementation of the Framework because it provides the common yardsticks that Parties will use to measure progress against the KMBGF’s 23 targets and 4 goals. At COP16, Parties agreed on the way that the indicators would be measured and used. This will ensure that all Parties are tracking progress in a way that can be interpreted by national policy makers, and it will provide data that can be aggregated up to the global level to provide a global picture of implementation for the KMGBF.

 Parties also took important decisions on how progress in the implementation of the KMGBF will be reviewed at COP17 as part of the planned global stock take. They determined the way in which commitments from actors other than national governments can be included in the PMRR Mechanism – including commitments from youth, women, indigenous peoples and local communities, civil society, the private sector and sub-national governments. In addition, Parties agreed on how they will report on their national progress, including using indicators, in reaching the goals and targets of the KMGBF.

Together the decisions taken by the COP16 will enhance responsibility and transparency in the implementation and monitoring of the KMGBF.

Cooperation, Multi-year Programme of work (MYPOW), Appointment of Executive Secretary

Parties finalised the business of COP 16 with agreement on:

• the ways that the Convention cooperates and articulates with stakeholders, Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and other organizations;
• to discuss the MYPOW, at COP 17; and
• conditions relating to the appointment of the Executive Secretary.

The COP-MOP to the Nagoya Protocol also took note of decision 16/2 of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity on digital sequence information on genetic resources, by which the Conference of the Parties adopted the modalities for operationalizing the multilateral mechanism for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including the Cali Fund.

 Launch of the Cali Fund

The Cali Fund for the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits from the use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources (DSI) -- the Cali Fund’-- which will receive contributions from private sector entities making commercial use of DSI, launched on 26 February 2025, in the margins of the resumed session of COP16.  By leveraging funding from the private sector, the Fund ushers in a new era for biodiversity finance.  Companies making commercial use of data from genetic resources in nature in a range of lucrative industries are now expected to contribute either a portion of their revenue or their profits to the Fund.  Contributions to the Cali Fund will be allocated to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, including by supporting the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).  At least 50 per cent of the Cali Fund resources will be allocated to indigenous peoples and local communities, recognizing their role as custodians of biodiversity.

 

Documents and Information Resources:

Final documents are available at:  https://www.cbd.int/conferences/2024/cop-16/documents

Proceedings of the negotiations were live streamed on UN WebTV at https://webtv.un.org/en

 

About the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Established in 1992, the CBD is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity, and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. With 196 Parties, the CBD has near universal participation among countries. It helps to address threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the active involvement of relevant stakeholders, including indigenous peoples and local communities, youth, women, NGOs, sub-national actors, and the business community.

The Cartagena Protocol to the CBD that entered into force in 2003 and currently having 173 Parties aims to safeguard biological diversity from potential risks posed by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) resulting from biotechnology. It focuses on safe transport, handling, and use of living modified organisms, considering their potential adverse effects on biodiversity and human health. It also has a supplementary protocol on liability and redress.

The Nagoya Protocol to the CBD entered into force in 2014 and has 141 Parties. It provides a transparent bilateral legal framework to providers and users for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from genetic resources.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted during the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) following a four-year consultation and negotiation process. This historic Framework, which supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and builds on the Convention’s previous Strategic Plans, sets out an ambitious pathway to reach the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050. Among the Framework’s key elements are 4 goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030.