Implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework: Here’s what’s at stake at COP16

Over 190 countries will convene at COP16 from 21 October to 1 November 2024 in Cali, Colombia, under the theme of “Peace with Nature,” which will serve as a powerful call to action.

The 16th COP is also the first biodiversity conference of its kind since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022.

The blueprint lays out four goals and 23 targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and enable humans to live in harmony with nature by 2050.

The upcoming negotiations are expected to focus on three key elements:

COP16 has been dubbed as the “COP of the people,” ensuring wide participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities to fully recognize their role as custodians of nature.

Significantly, at Cali, attention will turn to the state of implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework based on submitted updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. The plans, mandated by Article 6 of the Convention on General Measures for Conservation and Sustainable Use, act as a roadmap for biodiversity within national borders.

If countries have a plan and means to finance that plan in place, this will be a measure of readiness, offering the first stocktake of the framework.

Translating the Global Biodiversity Framework into national action is critical to making progress towards protecting 30% of land and sea areas by 2030 (“target 3”) and effectively restoring 30% of degraded ecosystems (“target 2”).

So far, around 30 countries have revised their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. Around 85 countries have set at least one national target in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework.

According to a first analysis by the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, most countries have encountered difficulties engaging non-state actors in the target-setting process.

Yet, revising these plans represents an excellent and unique opportunity for each country to engage with different stakeholders. An effective way for governments, businesses and civil society organizations to work collaboratively is through multi-stakeholder partnerships.

For example, the Global Plastics Action Partnership works with 19 countries to address plastic pollution, significantly contributing to achieving “target 7” on reducing pollution and "target 16" on reducing waste.

It brings together a wide range of stakeholders across the plastics value chains: decision-makers from the public and private sectors and local communities, including the informal sector, to jointly develop and implement a unified national approach to tackling plastic pollution.

Another example is the collaboration between the World Economic Forum, Biodiversity Credit Alliance, and the UK-France International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits, which will release the High-Level Principles for the Biodiversity Credits Market at COP16, supporting “target 19” to mobilize finance from all sources.

The voice of business at COP16 will be critical to signal to governments that the private sector is and must be part of the solution.

Over 400 companies have adopted the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosure in the past year. Some leading companies are taking action to assess, commit, transform and disclose on nature, including at the sector level and by developing their own individual business nature strategy.

To help inform these sectoral approaches and speed up business action, the Forum has developed a series of sector-specific guidance to outline the priority actions for businesses.

Whilst these business efforts are encouraging, they are far from the norm. Governments must move beyond voluntary action and adopt and implement the necessary measures to scale and speed up business action in line with “target 15” on mandatory assessment and disclosure by businesses.

For example, the European Sustainability Reporting Standards under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive require companies in scope to disclose specific metrics for their impact on nature and biodiversity and their exposure to nature and biodiversity loss.

These policy directives also help connect the social and environmental agendas, surfacing the impacts of entire value chains, from biodiversity custodians to consumers.

It is also crucial to align and integrate biodiversity policies in other global agendas, such as the climate change and desertification negotiations.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification COP16 focused on tackling desertification, will take place just weeks before the climate change-focused COP29 in Azerbaijan. It will thus be an opportunity to tackle these interconnected crises together.

One obvious step would be reconciling national biodiversity strategies with the nationally determined contributions – commitments required under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

We need policy ambition to ensure policy coherence between national biodiversity, agriculture, trade and other economic policies to tackle, for instance, environmentally harmful subsidies.

The gathering in Cali – in one of the most biodiverse countries – will remind the world that the stakes for humanity could not be higher.

Nature underpins our global economy, with over half of the world’s total gross domestic product – $44 trillion – moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services. As a result, it is at risk of imminent disruption due to exposure to drivers of nature loss.

The good news is that investing in natural capital is an essential, attractive and feasible option. And that wisdom is among us through the traditions and knowledge of Indigenous peoples and local communities.

Indigenous peoples and local communities lands cover a third of the earth. The fact that 91% of those lands are in good or fair ecological condition today holds lessons for implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework today.

It is time we “make” peace with nature and call on everyone to participate in what should be a whole-of-society approach.