The China Mail - Last-ditch effort to solve funding deadlock at nature-saving summit

USD -
AED 3.67302
AFN 68.25057
ALL 83.483156
AMD 381.28666
ANG 1.789699
AOA 917.000079
ARS 1331.517198
AUD 1.533989
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.701624
BAM 1.678416
BBD 2.011225
BDT 121.225644
BGN 1.67595
BHD 0.377008
BIF 2970.239245
BMD 1
BND 1.281665
BOB 6.898002
BRL 5.460296
BSD 0.996082
BTN 87.455643
BWP 13.436429
BYN 3.278753
BYR 19600
BZD 2.000841
CAD 1.373185
CDF 2890.000319
CHF 0.80513
CLF 0.02484
CLP 974.449633
CNY 7.18315
CNH 7.18171
COP 4044
CRC 504.348796
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 94.626544
CZK 21.049902
DJF 177.384543
DKK 6.39439
DOP 60.621404
DZD 130.329582
EGP 48.458546
ERN 15
ETB 138.442414
EUR 0.85684
FJD 2.253799
FKP 0.751467
GBP 0.74803
GEL 2.697767
GGP 0.751467
GHS 10.509197
GIP 0.751467
GMD 72.501278
GNF 8640.311728
GTQ 7.643755
GYD 208.398948
HKD 7.849455
HNL 26.182027
HRK 6.455199
HTG 130.732754
HUF 341.080505
IDR 16297.85
ILS 3.43782
IMP 0.751467
INR 87.689003
IQD 1304.93922
IRR 42124.999693
ISK 122.350144
JEP 0.751467
JMD 159.191257
JOD 0.709001
JPY 147.258498
KES 128.901322
KGS 87.449956
KHR 3990.988091
KMF 422.49885
KPW 899.94784
KRW 1382.949742
KWD 0.30545
KYD 0.830112
KZT 535.217311
LAK 21550.46277
LBP 89250.942919
LKR 299.682905
LRD 199.72281
LSL 17.746006
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 5.421084
MAD 9.036657
MDL 16.918898
MGA 4406.722934
MKD 52.80344
MMK 2099.311056
MNT 3591.43546
MOP 8.053619
MRU 39.734309
MUR 45.350304
MVR 15.405187
MWK 1727.246592
MXN 18.59456
MYR 4.228506
MZN 63.960054
NAD 17.746006
NGN 1525.150182
NIO 36.657011
NOK 10.16617
NPR 139.928686
NZD 1.679882
OMR 0.384488
PAB 0.996082
PEN 3.542113
PGK 4.136416
PHP 57.210499
PKR 282.843731
PLN 3.660896
PYG 7460.963815
QAR 3.631534
RON 4.347702
RSD 100.350056
RUB 80.000386
RWF 1440.873964
SAR 3.752576
SBD 8.217066
SCR 14.635046
SDG 600.507518
SEK 9.604135
SGD 1.283585
SHP 0.785843
SLE 23.103011
SLL 20969.503947
SOS 569.31256
SRD 37.035999
STD 20697.981008
STN 21.025441
SVC 8.715614
SYP 13001.372255
SZL 17.742745
THB 32.299026
TJS 9.31359
TMT 3.51
TND 2.935899
TOP 2.342099
TRY 40.682075
TTD 6.75297
TWD 29.816023
TZS 2472.503383
UAH 41.441389
UGX 3556.272608
UYU 39.974254
UZS 12476.132039
VES 128.747751
VND 26215
VUV 119.124121
WST 2.771506
XAF 562.925172
XAG 0.026298
XAU 0.000296
XCD 2.70255
XCG 1.795214
XDR 0.700098
XOF 562.925172
XPF 102.345818
YER 240.449806
ZAR 17.74998
ZMK 9001.199098
ZMW 22.935654
ZWL 321.999592
  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • JRI

    0.0800

    13.34

    +0.6%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    23.25

    -1.33%

  • NGG

    0.0200

    72.3

    +0.03%

  • CMSD

    0.0300

    23.54

    +0.13%

  • BCC

    -3.8500

    82.92

    -4.64%

  • GSK

    -0.5700

    36.75

    -1.55%

  • RBGPF

    1.0800

    76

    +1.42%

  • RIO

    0.3900

    60.09

    +0.65%

  • CMSC

    -0.1200

    22.95

    -0.52%

  • SCS

    0.0300

    15.99

    +0.19%

  • RYCEF

    0.1700

    14.5

    +1.17%

  • VOD

    0.2000

    11.3

    +1.77%

  • BTI

    0.5600

    56.4

    +0.99%

  • AZN

    -0.8800

    73.6

    -1.2%

  • RELX

    -1.7800

    48.81

    -3.65%

  • BP

    0.2800

    33.88

    +0.83%

Last-ditch effort to solve funding deadlock at nature-saving summit
Last-ditch effort to solve funding deadlock at nature-saving summit / Photo: © AFP

Last-ditch effort to solve funding deadlock at nature-saving summit

Negotiators at the world's biggest nature conservation conference knuckled down in Cali, Colombia on Friday for a last-ditch effort to break a deadlock on funding for efforts to "halt and reverse" species loss.

Text size:

The Colombian presidency of the summit, which opened on October 21 and was programmed to run until Friday, proposed a raft of late-night draft texts on possible ways out of the stalemate.

With some 23,000 registered delegates, the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity is the biggest-ever meeting of its kind.

It is a follow-up to an agreement reached two years ago in Canada, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which called for $200 billion per year to be made available to protect biodiversity by 2030.

Under the agreement, this was to include $20 billion per year going from rich to poor nations by 2025, and $30 billion by 2030.

The targets included placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection and 30 percent of degraded ecosystems under restoration, while reducing pollution and phasing out agricultural and other subsidies harmful to nature.

COP16 was tasked with assessing, and accelerating, progress.

But negotiations on funding have failed to advance, observers and delegates say, even as new research presented this week showed that more than a quarter of assessed plants and animals are now at risk of extinction.

Amid murmurs that the talks may drag into an extra day, the COP16 presidency proposed a compromise that would see talks continue after the summit -- and until the next one in Armenia in 2026 -- to find a "comprehensive financial solution to close the finance biodiversity gap."

Such talks would also assess the viability of creating a new, dedicated biodiversity fund -- a key demand from developing countries who say they are not represented in existing mechanisms, which are also too onerous.

- 'Cali Fund' -

Another point of contention at the summit is on how best to share the profits of digitally sequenced genetic data taken from animals and plants with the communities they come from.

Such data, much of it from species found in poor countries, is notably used in medicines and cosmetics that can make their developers billions.

COP15 in Montreal had agreed on the creation of a "multilateral mechanism" for sharing the benefits of digitally sequenced genetic information -- abbreviated as DSI -- "including a global fund."

But negotiators still need to resolve such basic questions as who pays, how much, into which fund, and to whom the money should go.

In a draft text for negotiators, the COP16 presidency proposed creating a new "Cali Fund" for the equitable sharing of DSI benefits.

Negotiators also remain stuck on the nature of a mechanism for monitoring progress toward the UN goals.

- 'Everyone has to cede' -

On Thursday, COP16 president Susana Muhamad, Colombia's environment minister, said the negotiations were "very complex," with "many interests, many parties... and that means everyone has to cede something."

UN chief Antonio Guterres, who stopped over in Cali for two days this week with five heads of state and dozens of ministers to add impetus to the talks, reminded delegates that humanity has already altered three-quarters of Earth's land surface and two-thirds of its waters.

Urging negotiators to "accelerate" progress, he warned: "The clock is ticking. The survival of our planet's biodiversity -- and our own survival -- are on the line."

Representatives of Indigenous peoples and local communities held demonstrations at COP16 to press for more rights and protections as delegates inside wrangled over a proposal to create a permanent representative body for them under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

On this, too, no agreement has been reached after nearly two weeks of talks.

The meeting has been held amid a massive security deployment, following threats from a Colombian guerrilla group with a base near Cali.

V.Liu--ThChM