COP16, the major United Nations summit on biodiversity, concluded on 1 November in Cali, Colombia, after a record number of attendees attended two weeks of negotiations on progress towards the goals of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
Governments failed to agree on how the goals of the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework will be financed, but some key agenda items were adopted and are now operative (see below).
This article provides background to the summit and what it means for accountants.
What is the Biodiversity COP?
‘COP’ stand for ‘Conference of the Parties’. COPs are the main decision-making bodies of the United Nations treaty bodies.
At COPs representatives of all the ‘Parties’, i.e. countries that have agreed to participate in and be bound by the treaties, converge to discuss their progress on achieving the goals of the treaties.
The Biodiversity COP – also known as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) or the ‘Nature COP’ – was established to promote the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.
While the more famous ‘Climate COPs’ take place every November, the Biodiversity COPs happen every second October.
Biodiversity COPs are becoming increasingly relevant to business as the scale of biodiversity destruction, and its impact on people, planet and economies, becomes clear.
What was the theme of COP16?
The headline of the COP16 summit was “peace with nature”. It focused on how the nature crisis is entrenching poverty and jeopardizing economies and undermining the Sustainable Development Goals.
The theme of COP16 was ‘COP of the People’, as explained by Susan Gardner, director of the Ecosystems Division at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“For too long, humanity has viewed itself as separate from nature…That perspective is starting to shift and COP16 will be an important opportunity to re-enforce the message that humanity and nature are intrinsically linked.”
This summit saw the launch of The World Coalition of Peace With Nature: A Call for Life, a coalition of 21 countries that agreed to a set of principles aimed at changing humanity's relationship with nature. It called for “the development of public policies to strengthen institutional and human capital, governance, intercultural dialogue, technical capabilities, and adequate finance to achieve a balanced and harmonious relationship with nature”.
Why was this COP so important?
The primary agenda of COP16 was the implementation of the ‘Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’ (GBF)
Often described as the “Paris Agreement for nature”, the ‘GBF’ had been adopted at COP 15 in December 2022 in Montreal, Canada. It set out four long-term goals and 23 specific targets to be achieved by 2030 to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
Under the GBF, countries are expected to submit updated national plans detailing how they will meet their targets under GBF. These National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) were to be submitted by the start of conference on October 21. Only 17% of the 196 countries had submitted their updated NBSAPs by the start of the conference, among them Colombia, Mexico, Suriname, and Cuba. By the close of the summit, only 44 out of 196 parties – 22% – had come up with new biodiversity plans.
Why does biodiversity matter to business?
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has emphasised how prompt and effective action on the nature and biodiversity crisis makes economic sense:
“Every dollar invested in ecosystem restoration creates up to thirty dollars in economic benefits.”
At COP16, Guterres warned delegates that humanity faces a “dangerous and uncertain tomorrow” caused by its destruction of life-sustaining nature.
Many businesses and financial institutions have already acknowledged the real risks this presents to business and livelihoods and signed a call to heads of states and governments for renewed policy ambition in advance of COP16 to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework and halt and reverse nature loss this decade.
In recognition that businesses and the accountancy profession need to be part of the solution, the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA) in March 2022 launched a call to action to the accounting profession in response to the nature crisis. In October 2024, it published a report taking stock of the GAA’s collective accomplishments against its four nature commitments. The report, The GAA’s Progress and Pathway to 2030, considers relevant trends affecting the profession, such as the growing market trend towards transparency, reporting and regulation on nature-related issues. It also sets out actions that the GAA and its members will take to help further accelerate collective progress towards our nature commitments.
Accounting and finance at COP
Finance was a critical issue at COP16, as $700 billion annually is reportedly needed to achieve the GBF targets on biodiversity protection and restoration. For the second time in its history, a Finance & Biodiversity Day took place at a Biodiversity COP, but funding commitments have fallen short of the target, with only seven countries pledging a total of $243 million to the newly established UN fund for the GBF. The lack of sufficient funding threatens the implementation of biodiversity projects on the ground.
A new ‘Cali Fund’ was agreed to collect voluntary contributions from pharmaceutical and other companies to cover their use of genetic data from nature, but overall COP16 failed to reach consensus on global finance for nature.
Nature-related reporting was a major theme at COP16, with discussions on how companies can better assess and communicate their impacts and dependencies on nature. This includes aligning business practices with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to responsible consumption and production, climate action, and sustainable cities and communities. Among the highlights:
Biodiversity credits were also to the forefront in COP16, with three international organisations releasing a set of 21 high-level principles for biodiversity credits which aims to steer the emerging market. The organisations were The World Economic Forum (WEF) the Biodiversity Credit Alliance (BCA) and the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB). These principles were first launched in 2022 in an attempt “to explore the potential of biodiversity credits to unlock new financing for measurable positive outcomes for nature and its stewards.”
The WEF also published a new report, Nature Finance and Biodiversity Credits: A Private Sector Roadmap to Finance and Act on Nature, that aims at empowering business leaders to take decisive actions towards a nature-positive future.
What’s next?
This is the first of three UN environment COPs taking place in 2024. The Climate COP - COP29 – will take place in Azerbaijan from 11-22 November. In December, Saudi Arabia will host another COP, this one focused on desertification.
Chartered Accountants Ireland will bring you highlights as they happen.
Articles
COP16: Key outcomes agreed at the UN biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia
(Carbon Brief)
UN summit agrees deal on genetic data but fails on wider finance to protect nature
(Financial Times)
Countdown to COP16: are businesses and government turning the tide on nature loss? (Business for Nature)
Malcolm Noonan tells Cop16 Ireland making progress in ending biodiversity loss (Irish Times)
For more resources on nature and accounting, visit Biodiversity - Accounting for Nature in the Chartered Accountants Ireland Sustainability centre.
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