Minister Susana Muhamad officially assumed the presidency of COP16: she will seek to make progress on five objectives

This Monday, at the opening plenary of the Biodiversity Summit (COP16), Environment Minister Susana Muhamad officially took over the presidency of the meeting. The mandate was handed over by the President of COP15 and Minister of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China, Huang Runqiu.

(Lea esta historia en español, aquí)

In her speech, Minister Muhamad called for adherence to the Kunming-Montreal Global Framework to halt the loss of biodiversity on the planet. "The negotiations that led to the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Framework were extremely intense. We cannot diminish the sense of compromise that was involved. This is no ordinary process, nor is it just a matter of national plans setting targets, but requires significant involvement of the whole of society and the whole of government. Protecting, conserving and restoring nature is not just the responsibility of environmental ministries. It is, in fact, a revolution in the way we live on the planet," said Muhamad.

(No se pierda un solo detalle de la COP16, que se desarrolla en Cali. Regístrese acá para recibir nuestro boletín con el cubrimiento especial de EL TIEMPO).

She also emphasized the need to mobilize all sectors for global conservation. Muhamad stressed that although it is an "arduous task," the world must reconnect with nature to regain a sense of humanity. "It is not just about negotiating agenda items, it is not just about agreeing on conditions to be included in documents. The Colombian government has created these conditions so that we can carry out this task," he added.

In this sense, Muhammad will not only lead the global discussions on conservation that will take place from October 21 to November 1, but will also be the voice of the meeting until the arrival of COP17, with commitments such as getting more countries to submit their Biodiversity Action Plans. These plans outline the actions each country will take to meet the goals of the Kunming-Montreal framework, but so far only a little more than 30 countries have submitted them.

(Lea también: En el ‘Amazonas’ y en medio de cantos indígenas, se inició la COP16: pasar de las palabras a los hechos fue el llamado central)

The official also added that the COP will seek to be successful in at least five areas: the generation of a work programme for indigenous peoples and local communities; the fair distribution of benefits from digital sequences of genetic information; the global mobilization of resources to achieve the goals of biodiversity conservation; the creation of a system to monitor compliance with the agreements; and finally, the generation of a global balance of what has been achieved through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to conserve nature.

(Lea también: El mundo se reúne en Cali en una COP atípica: los compromisos, las comunidades y los recursos financieros serán la clave)

EDWIN CAICEDO

Environment and Health Journalist

@CaicedoUcros