The 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference, better known as COP16, begins today in Cali, Colombia. There, delegates from almost 200 countries — or parties, as they are known in the COP process — will assess their progress on implementing the landmark Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) that was signed at the last summit in December 2022.
COP16 comes just weeks after the release of WWF's Living Planet Report 2024, which found a “catastrophic” 73% decline in the average size of monitored wildlife populations between 1970 and 2020.
This year’s COP, which will run till Nov 1, is where the rubber really hits the road, says Will McGoldrick, regional managing director, Asia Pacific at The Nature Conservancy. Over close to a fortnight, nations will aim to distil the commitments of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework into actionable plans, he tells The Edge Singapore.
The 23 different targets of the GBF include the goal to protect and conserve 30% of the world’s land and marine environments by 2030, also known as the “30x30” pledge.
The Nature Conservancy will be in Cali advocating for three transformative measures, says McGoldrick, who joined the global environmental non-profit in 2015.
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First, parties should implement the GBF with “robust accountability mechanisms”, says McGoldrick.
Second, parties should integrate biodiversity targets across all sectors, including food, energy, and finance, to ensure that nature is central to our economic decisions, he adds.
Third, parties should invest in nature for equitable conservation to ensure that indigenous peoples and local communities benefit from conservation efforts, says McGoldrick.
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He points to the Eternal Mongolia initiative, a “standout example” launched in April by the Mongolian government and The Nature Conservancy.
Eternal Mongolia is a negotiated partnership that will reportedly deliver US$198 million ($259.38 million) of new investment over 15 years to ensure the “community-based conservation” of vast natural areas in Mongolia, including “the world’s last intact temperate grassland”, according to The Nature Conservancy.
Through Eternal Mongolia, the Mongolian government and The Nature Conservancy will work together to develop finance mechanisms, such as a US$71 million transition fund from private and other global donor sources that will “accelerate” Mongolia’s conservation and community development goals.
“This one initiative will achieve lasting conservation outcomes across an area bigger than California, while leveraging close to US$200 million in new funding,” adds McGoldrick.
COP vs COP
Around 14,000 people are registered to attend COP16 — a record turnout for the biennial affair. COP16, focused on biodiversity, will conclude less than two weeks before the start of the COP29 climate conference.
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With fossil fuel-producer Azerbaijan playing host to COP29 this year, sceptics believe COP16 could steal the spotlight from a potentially weaker climate conference, which is again taking place in an oil-rich state, after COP28 in Abu Dhabi.
When asked, McGoldrick sidesteps the chatter. “The reality is that the nature and climate agendas are increasingly integrated and highly complementary,” he says. “Having the two meetings close together is a great opportunity for governments to build trust and advance the implementation of nature-based solutions to tackle climate change.”
Closing the gap
One of the GBF’s “four overarching global goals” is to “progressively” close a US$700 billion-per-year biodiversity finance gap.
Meanwhile, target 19 of the GBF calls for parties to “substantially and progressively increase” funding from all sources to implement national biodiversity strategies and action plans. Parties also aim to mobilise “at least US$200 billion per year” by 2030 through various means, such as promoting blended finance and “innovative schemes” like green bonds and biodiversity offsets and credits.
In a recent interview with market research firm Opis, Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, says the market for biodiversity credits remains “small” today. “I think the market, of course, needs to look very closely at what happened in the [carbon] credit area and then draw lessons from that.”
Schomaker, who will oversee COP16 as the UN biodiversity chief, acknowledges the current debate over the integrity of carbon credits. “Do we need legislation basically [or] normative guardrails? I think in the biodiversity credit sphere, as much as in the [carbon] credit sphere, we need to be very clear as to what is a good credit and when a credit is just greenwashing. I think that debate is now accelerating and that’s a good thing.”
Still, there are some ways to go in defining and developing biodiversity credits for the mainstream markets. She adds: “We also recognise that maybe [there are] additional difficulties in the biodiversity credit sphere, in terms of where biodiversity is located, what constitutes success over time. All of this is, at the moment, undefined, but if we want to see this as a valuable financial mechanism, this discussion needs to be accelerated.”
The US$700 billion needed annually to reverse nature loss is an impetus to explore “new financing mechanisms” like biodiversity credits, says McGoldrick. “With corporations increasingly required to declare their impact on nature, there is a corresponding growth in interest in how they can invest in initiatives that protect and restore natural systems.”
Some governments are starting to develop policies and regulatory frameworks in this space, he adds. “The most important thing is to ensure there are robust methodologies and standards in place to ensure any such market for biodiversity credits delivers real and measurable benefits for nature and people.”
Schomaker, in her interview, says Australia has “a lot of experience” in this space and can contribute “some of the models that are successful in biodiversity credits”. “There’s a lot to be learned hopefully.”
The Australian government launched in September a consultation on its Nature Repair Market (NRM) scheme, also known as the biodiversity credits market. The government aims to launch the NRM in 2025, which will mark the world's first government-run voluntary biodiversity market, after it was legislated in December 2023.
Currently, the New South Wales government in Australia runs a voluntary programme under their Biodiversity Offsets Scheme. Under it, biodiversity credits are generated when a landowner commits to protect and enhance the biodiversity values on their land in perpetuity through a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement.
Photos: UN, The Nature Conservancy
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