The European Commission and the United Nations have taken stock of negotiations ahead of COP16 on biodiversity, to be held in Cali, Colombia, from 21 October to 1 November.
The parties will meet for the first time since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15 in December 2022. In Cali, they will discuss the progress made in its implementation, in particular the national biodiversity targets. The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment will be represented by a six-member delegation.
The priorities for COP16 will be the adoption and finalisation of a plan to monitor the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Framework, as well as the mobilisation of financial resources to achieve this.
To go further, the European Commission, which welcomed the formal adoption of the regulation on nature restoration in July (see EUROPE 13433/2), recommends that more work be done on the links between climate and biodiversity. It calls for biodiversity to be integrated into all sectors of society and the economy.
The Commission has given assurances that, together with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Central Bank (ECB), it is preparing to provide companies with information on the economic risks associated with biodiversity loss and on what constitutes a sustainable investment. In this respect, the concept of biodiversity credits, recently introduced by Ursula von der Leyen (see EUROPE 13482/14), should make it possible “to contribute to projects that are positive for nature”.
César Luena (S&D, Spanish) was the first to criticise, calling on the Commission to “put an end to fine words”. The day after the Commission’s request to postpone application of the regulation on imported deforestation by a year (see EUROPE 13495/1), and a week after the Council’s request to reduce the protection status of the wolf (see EUROPE 13491/8), MEPs wondered whether biodiversity was still a priority for the EU. How can the EU still be “preaching to the rest of the world?”, exclaimed Pär Holmgren (Greens/EFA, Swedish). Nature credits are nothing more than a “greenwashing scheme”, according to Carola Rackete (The Left, German).
The European Commission may not be represented “at a political level” in Cali, due to the constitution of the College of Commissioners. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)