The issue of funding for biodiversity targets could lead to a compromise in Rome, where COP16 on biodiversity is due to conclude, after a setback in Colombia in November 2024 (see EUROPE 13517/15).
The Colombian Presidency of COP16 submitted a new compromise proposal on resource mobilisation on Wednesday 26 February. A source of contention, the creation of a global financing instrument for biodiversity would not be the subject of a decision before 2026, at COP18, as the Colombian Presidency had already suggested in a discussion paper published before the Rome session (see EUROPE 13586/16).
Mentioned in Article 21, the creation of a financing instrument for biodiversity pits developing countries, which are requesting it, against developed countries.
“At the COP in Montreal in 2022 (...), the developed countries promised, in particular to the African Group, that they would meet this obligation here at COP16 in Cali. But once again, these countries are refusing to address this issue”, lamented Lim Lee Ching, from the NGO Third World Network, at a press conference in Rome on Thursday 27 February. In her view, “the time has come” to use a fund that is both governed by and accountable to the COP.
Developing countries refer to Article 21 of the Convention, according to which a mechanism will have to provide them with financial resources. “This has still not been put in place, more than 30 years after the adoption of the Convention”, pointed out Lim Lee Ching.
See the compromise proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/fot (Original version in French by Florent Servia)