COP16: Countries Launch Coalition With Goal of ‘Making Peace With Nature’

At the United Nations COP16 biodiversity talks on Tuesday, Colombia launched an international coalition with the goal of “making peace with nature.”

Leaders at the summit warned of rapid environmental destruction posing a risk to the survival of humanity, reported Reuters.

“Justice, equity and inclusion will be foundational to the [2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)]’s success. So, it is long past time for the leadership and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples to take front and centre. In the same vein, COP16 must operationalize the mechanism and fund for fair and equitable benefit-sharing from Digital Sequencing Information of genetic resources. That is how the GBF can ensure that those who profit from biodiversity give back to nature, to countries and to communities that steward our natural heritage,” a press release from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said.

The task of the meeting of 196 countries in Cali, Colombia, is to strategize on how to stop nature’s decline by 2030, as climate change, habitat loss and other human activities drive the destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity around the world.

Countries from four continents are represented in the coalition — including Mexico, Uganda, Chile and Sweden — but none from the Asia-Pacific region, Reuters reported.

Nations that join the coalition agree to principles that work to change humans’ relationship with the environment to one that is in harmony with nature. The restructured relationship would include putting money toward sustainable development and conservation, with the mobilization of society toward the protection of the natural world.

“We are beginning the era of human extinction. I do not think I am exaggerating,” said President of Colombia Gustavo Petro at the start of a meeting between six presidents and 100-plus government ministers at COP16 on Tuesday.

Petro emphasized that the planet can’t wait for saving nature to be profitable, and that life is more valuable than money.

“Nature is life. And yet we are waging war against it. A war where there can be no winner,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, as reported by Reuters. “This is what an existential crisis looks like.”

COP16 could be a conservation turning point, leaders at the summit said, as it looks to implement 23 targets for halting nature loss by the end of the decade, as summarized in the GBF. These include marshaling $200 billion each year for conservation while conserving 30 percent of Earth’s land, water and seas.

“Today we can change,” President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa said, as Reuters reported. “I want to believe we can change and the world is not going to end.”

Countries were far from agreeing on how best to move forward on items on the far-reaching agenda, and were at an impasse as to increasing financing. Some nations announced millions in new pledges to a global biodiversity fund, but the capital was far less than what is necessary.

“Through the generous support from donors to the [Global Environment Facility (GEF)], UNEP is proud to act as implementing agency supporting countries with the implementation of just under $600 million in GEF biodiversity resources,” the press release said. “Healthy biodiversity is a prerequisite for truly equitable and sustainable development. So, I urge all stakeholders to make this COP the moment the GBF takes wing and sets humanity on course of making peace with nature.”