mosaique.info logo
  1. home
  2. article
  3. UN COP16 biodiversity summit kicks off in Colombia

UN COP16 biodiversity summit kicks off in Colombia

ai generated text

The Conference of the Parties on Biological Diversity, COP16, has commenced in Cali, Colombia, bringing together representatives from over 175 countries to negotiate solutions to address the alarming rate of biodiversity loss. The conference aims to safeguard biodiversity and protect the planet's natural resources. Key points of discussion include the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to protect ecosystems and species by 2030, and the creation of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund to support countries in achieving these goals.

    1. Those profiting from nature must contribute to its protection and restoration.
    2. We must leave Cali with … commitments to mobilise other sources of public and private finance.
    3. A collapse in nature's services -- such as pollination, and clean water -- would see the global economy lose trillions of dollars a year, with the poorest hardest hit.
    1. We are all nervous [hoping] nothing bad happens because it is the biggest international event that Colombia has hosted.
    1. We have been working since February to safeguard the city of Cali.
    2. We have more than 10,000 police officers, we also have detachments of the Colombian Armed Forces guarding the entire perimeter of the city.
    1. What is at stake is actually another wave of extinction, which could be the sixth general extinction on Earth.
    2. When we destroy biodiversity, we are destroying the very links that help the system to reproduce life.
    3. Never before have so many heads of state attended a COP on biodiversity.
    1. COP16 is an opportunity to re-energise and remind everybody of their commitments two years ago and start to course correct if we're going to get anywhere close to 2030 targets being achieved.
    1. The time for words and false promises is past if we want to save the planet.
    1. Unlike in Brazil, where deforestation is essentially carried out by large agro-industrial operators exporting soya or meat, in Colombia, it results from the actions of a wide range of players, from small farmers to large land speculators, drug traffickers and armed groups.
    1. So that's one of the things that we'll be looking for at COP16.
    2. A lot of discourse has been given about the voices of local communities … Indigenous peoples really playing a key role.