UNCBD COP 16 to conclude in Rome next week

 

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation

20.02.2025

While this resumed session may have a lower profile than Cali, several critical unresolved items are on the table, including the financing mechanism, resource mobilization strategies and the implementation of the monitoring framework. We understand there may be announcements of the first contributions to the Cali Fund, which would mark a significant milestone.

The focus of discussions in Rome by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, will be on addressing the agenda items that remained pending after the 16th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Cali, Colombia which was suspended for lack of quorum.  The issues are:

Resource mobilization for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).

What will resource mobilisation be used for? In the Indian context resources have to be mobilised to:

Ø  mitigate biodiversity loss,

Ø  further green cover,

Ø  restore degraded lands,

Ø  manage effectively human wildlife conflict mitigation,

Ø  reach NetZero in Carbon emissions,

Ø  spawn genetic pool of endangered species by mitigating biodiversity loss,

Ø  Reverse introduction of invasive species,

Ø  Complete Biodiversity Registries,

Ø  Give People an effective stake in biodiversity Conservation through public documentation like Biodiversity registries,

Ø  Achieve goals pertaining to sustainable agriculture

Ø  Renew and redefine the significance of Green Belts,

Ø  Smart City Governance,

Ø  Promote sustainable consumption,

Ø  The multiple values of biodiversity are integrated into decision-making at all levels.

Ø  Institutionalise and legislate indigenous peoples’ rights along with Market Access to Indigenous Peoples’ native biodiverse trade.

• How the financial mechanism of the Convention can deliver adequate resources effectively and rapidly for implementation of the KMGBF.
• The Monitoring Framework: the yardsticks that will be used to assess progress in the implementation of the KMGBF.
• The Planning, Monitoring, Reporting and Review Mechanism, which will provide clarity on how these four crucial activities will be undertaken ahead of the global stock-take of the KMGBF implementation at COP 17 in Yerevan, Armenia in 2026.
• Cooperation with other conventions and international organizations.

 Details on the key agenda items expected in Rome next week include:

Resource Mobilization

Parties will work towards the adoption of a Strategy for Resource Mobilization to help secure $200 billion USD annually by 2030 from all sources to support biodiversity initiatives worldwide, including: increasing total biodiversity related international financial resources from developed countries, including official development assistance, and from countries that voluntarily assume obligations of developed country Parties, to developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, to at least $20 billion per year by 2025, and to at least $30 billion per year by 2030.

 Target 18 of the KMGBF also addresses the reduction of harmful incentives by at least $500 billion per year by 2030. Parties will also further discuss work towards a dedicated global financing instrument for biodiversity, including a roadmap to this effect until 2030.

 To date the Convention has been able to count on resources mobilized to support the goals and targets of the KMGBF through a variety of bilateral arrangements, private, and philanthropic sources, as well as dedicated funds such as:

 The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), agreed at COP 15 in 2022 and established in less than a year by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).  The fund accepts contributions from governments, the private sector, and philanthropies, and finances high-impact projects in developing regions, with emphasis on supporting countries with fragile ecosystems, such as small island states and economies in transition. To date, 11 donor countries as well as the Government of Quebec have pledged nearly US $400 million to the GBF Fund, with US $163 million pledged during COP 16.

 The Kunming Biodiversity Fund (KBF), launched at COP 16 with a US $200 million contribution from the Government of China.  The KBF supports accelerated action to deliver 2030 Agenda and SDG targets and 2050 goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, particularly in developing countries.

 Monitoring framework of the KMGBF: the yardsticks the world will use to measure progress

Parties are expected to complete a crucial step by finalizing the monitoring framework agreed upon at COP 15. The monitoring framework is essential to the implementation of the KMGBF because it provides the common yardsticks that Parties will use to measure progress against the 23 targets.

 Mechanism for Planning, Monitoring, Reporting and Review (PMRR)

On PMRR, Parties are expected to make important decisions on how progress in the implementation of the KMGBF will be reviewed at COP17 as part of the planned global stocktake. They are expected to determine 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, the national reporting template--– which includes the headline indicators of the monitoring framework--must also be finalized.

 Financial Mechanism

Parties are expected to endorse the achievements of the GEF, encourage further contributions to the GBFF, and provide additional guidance to the GEF considering its upcoming replenishment negotiations.

 Other agenda items

Decisions on cooperation with other conventions and international organizations, CBD’s multi-year programme of work, and the adoption of final reports from COP 16, COPMOP 11 (Cartagena Protocol), and COPMOP 5 (Nagoya Protocol).

 Update on the Cali Fund:

 The Cali Fund on sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information from genetic resources will be launched on 25 February in the margins of the resumed COP. The press conference announcing the signing of the MoU among UNEP and the CBD Secretariat, UNDP and the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office—will mark the official opening the Cali Fund.

 The Cali Fund is innovative and revolutionary in that it is a private sector-led fund established by the Conference of the Parties to the CBD for the purpose of monetary benefits from the use of DSI to flow back to nature and the self-determined rights of indigenous peoples and local communities towards achieving the third objective of the Convention.