The world achieved what was hoped for at COP16, but with a bittersweet taste

In 1992, at the Rio de Janeiro conference, the world committed itself to holding a series of summits to tackle the environmental problems that threatened (and still threaten) human life.

(Lea esta historia en español, aquí)

This is the order in which they will be held this year, starting with the one in Cali until Friday, followed by the climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November, and the one on land degradation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December. And although the world has been meeting and talking for more than 30 years, the result is almost always the same: a final agreement that falls short of the urgency of the global crisis.

In Colombia, the government achieved what it had hoped for, but not with the level of ambition that was required. President Gustavo Petro himself had warned that if there was no progress on concrete actions, this biodiversity conference would once again be a space for discussions and words. Failure after failure for 30 years. They are taking us to the brink of death, and the governments of the world can't agree to stop this general death, if the COPs can't, who can?" said the head of state on 21 October, during the inauguration of the Green Zone.

Colombia had everything it needed to reach a historic final agreement. Not only did the Summit generate a massive mobilisation of citizens and civil society, involving people as never before in one of these meetings, but the country, already a world leader in the environmental debate, reaffirmed its global leadership. It is worth ing that it was Colombia that proposed the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and co-chaired the creation of the Nagoya Protocol, two fundamental instruments of global environmental governance.

However, for the majority of analysts interviewed by this newspaper, despite the country's massive local mobilisation and an atypical and unprecedented summit, the final agreement was what is often seen at these meetings: a complex geopolitical discussion in which the interests of the megapowers tend to block the actions that the planet needs, on fundamental points such as the mobilisation of financial resources and the definition of concrete actions for the restoration and conservation of nature.

And although a lot was achieved in Colombia, it could have been more (and more far-reaching). Discussions ended yesterday, Saturday - one day after the agreed deadline - at 8:30 a.m., after a long day of negotiations that began on Friday night and left as one of the great triumphs the unlocking of the global agreement to identify and conserve marine areas of high ecological importance in international waters. In other words, the creation of a mechanism for declaring reserves or protected areas in areas that do not belong to any country. This proposal, which has been under discussion for eight years, finally saw the light of day in Colombia.

In addition, Colombia was able to approve the work plan for indigenous peoples and local communities, the inclusion of Afro-descendant communities as fundamental actors in the care and protection of biodiversity, and the creation of a subsidiary body under Article 8J for indigenous peoples and local communities. In essence, indigenous peoples, peasants and Afro-descendants will have the opportunity to have a stronger voice in the Convention's discussions and will be given access to resources to develop projects that will help protect nature. This was a point that the President of COP16, Minister Susana Muhamad, had included in her roap from the outset.

On the other hand, it was also decided to promote synergies between the different COPs, which today, although they generally have the same objective, continue to operate separately. Finally, the creation of a global fund for the collection of economic resources from the use of digitalised genetic sequences and their fair and equitable distribution according to criteria such as the conservation needs and biodiversity wealth of countries was achieved. This mechanism has been named the Cali Fund in honour of this COP. However, it has not yet been decided who will provide the resources and how much will go into the fund. In other words, the for depositing the money has been created, but it has not yet been decided who will deposit it and how much it will be.

With these achievements, Colombia has literally achieved almost everything it set out to do (albeit half-heartedly, as in the case of the Cali Fund), but the issue that is always at the heart of these discussions has been left pending: the money and the actions, and this, according to experts, is where the urgency has been lacking.

In this context, according to Benjamín Quesada, a climatologist and director of the Earth System Science undergraduate programme at the Universidad del Rosario, while COP16 was a success in of international mobilisation and convening, bringing together six heads of state and more than 100 ministers, and fostering discussion and recognition of the importance of biodiversity in civil society, as is often the case at these summits, some of the key issues were left for the next edition.

The lack of compliance by countries in implementing their biodiversity strategies and action plans is a major concern, with less than 20 per cent of the world's countries having done so as promised; and the issue of financing, which remains stalled: "Debt-for-nature swaps or direct financing have been excluded from the agreement, and who will pay and where the funds for biodiversity protection will be distributed remains to be defined," said Quesada.

Carlos Julio Polo, marine biologist and director of Sharky Management and Consulting, agrees. He points out that while the agreement on the creation of marine protected areas in international waters is historic, there are still issues that, although outlined, will have to be addressed in other negotiations, such as those related to the oceans, pollution, marine noise and light from mining activities.

This came as no surprise to Manuel Rodríguez Becerra, Colombia's first Environment Minister, who has attended dozens of these conferences since they began in 1992.

For example, one of the key points for him was the fair sharing of benefits from genetic sequences, which could be a great legacy for companies that use information on species from mega-diverse countries like Colombia to pay for the use of biodiversity. But although the discussion was put on the table, what was agreed was the creation of the Cali Fund, a bag to be filled without knowing who will put resources into it.

Still, the conference should be seen as a triumph for the country. According to Lina Muñoz, director of the Specialisation and Master's Programme in Environmental Law and Management at the Universidad del Rosario, COP16 resulted in a "strengthening of the environmental sector in both the public and private sectors". Many links that already existed between civil society organisations, academia, research institutes and companies were strengthened. I think there was a synergy that we hadn't seen in Colombia for a long time,' said Muñoz.

EDWIN CAICEDO

Environment and Health Journalist

@CaicedoUcros