Biodiversity COP begins next week: Implementation is the order of the day

The COP16 Biodiversity Summit begins on Monday 21 October, and will run until 1 November. Unlike climate change conferences, which take place every year, biodiversity COPs are a rarer feat, taking place every two years. This year’s biodiversity COP, hosted in the Columbian city of Cali, is therefore the first since COP15 in 2022. COP15 culminated with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which sets out a pathway to reach “a world living in harmony with nature by 2050” and contains goals for 2050, supported by targets for 2030. A crucial focus of the upcoming biodiversity COP is implementing the ambitious targets and goals set out in the Framework in practice. We have set out some points to look out for ahead of COP beginning below.

Turning goals and targets into reality

The goals and targets included in the Framework are wide-ranging and will require action from both governments and business to implement: for example, Target 15 sets out that businesses should assess, disclose, and reduce their biodiversity-related risks and negative impacts. However, limited progress has been made to date and pre-COP reporting suggests that this may continue. Many countries have failed to produce updated national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) ahead of COP16 (despite pledging to do so), with fewer than 30 countries having published updated NBSAPs so far. The UK is one of the laggards (although it has provided its national target submission to the UN) – we understand that the UK Government plans to publish its updated NBSAP following its review of the Environmental Improvement Plan for England (due to be completed by the end of the year). 

Organisers will likely be hoping that COP16 serves as a renewed call to action for governments globally, and an opportunity to focus minds on implementation. It’s possible that a number of countries will submit their NBSAPs soon after the conference – any commitments made should be followed carefully given the potential follow-on consequences for business. 

In a year of elections, perhaps the delays are unsurprising, and the change in government is a reason that the UK Government has cited for falling behind. The changing political landscape may have more significant ramifications than delays alone – for example, the US is one of two countries in the world (along with the Vatican) that is not a party to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and any possibility that it might join in the future will likely turn on its political make-up and policy priorities.  

Rules for the use of digital biodiversity data

Another area of implementation relates to digital biodiversity data. At COP15, the parties agreed to put in place a multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including a global fund. The idea is that biodiversity-rich countries should benefit when digital biodiversity data is downloaded and used for commercial purposes. Businesses that use such data (e.g., to make medicines, vaccines, or food) may be required to pay into the fund, but the details of how this will work in practice are yet to be finalised – we’ll be looking out for announcements on this point at COP16. 

Biodiversity finance

Linked to the above, we can expect to see a number of conversations around biodiversity finance at COP16, which may centre on how wealthier countries can support developing countries in protecting their nature and biodiversity (not unlike conversations regarding “loss and damage” at climate COPs in recent years). Target 19 of the Framework commits governments to mobilising $200 billion per year for biodiversity from all sources, including $30 billion through international finance. Far less has been raised to date, however, and the COP16 agenda is set to include discussions about the current biodiversity finance landscape and possible instruments for biodiversity finance as part of ‘Finance and Biodiversity Day’ on 28 October. 

One such instrument that may be deployed is the still fairly nascent voluntary biodiversity credit markets, which could be a useful means of mobilising finance towards nature regeneration efforts. Pollination recently published a report on the state of the markets, noting that “it is now realistic to conceive that voluntary biodiversity credit markets could mature to help deliver on the goals of the [Framework] and nature-positive by 2030”.

Nature and climate: working together or apart?

COP16 comes just before COP29, which runs from 11 to 22 November in Azerbaijan. Having biodiversity COP before this year’s climate COP may allow nature to take centre stage, and facilitate discussions regarding the interdependencies between climate and nature, and the crucial role that nature and biodiversity can play in mitigating the impacts of climate change. However, there is also a risk that biodiversity COP may be somewhat overshadowed by the impending climate COP, with some attendees prioritising the latter. Despite this, business representatives seem to be fairly optimistic about turnout, with some commentators indicating that financial sector attendance in Cali could be higher than at COP15.