Public funding for nature conservation stalls at COP16

Jake Spring |

Close to 20 per cent of the Amazon’s tropical rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years.
Close to 20 per cent of the Amazon’s tropical rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years.

Wealthy nations appeared to hit a limit with how much they are willing to pay to conserve nature around the world, instead shifting their focus at the two-week UN biodiversity summit toward discussions of private money filling the funding gap.

At the COP16 negotiations in Cali, Colombia, countries failed to figure out how they would mobilise $US200 billion ($A303 billion) annually in conservation funding by 2030, including $US30 billion ($A45 billion) that would come directly from rich nations.

That money, pledged two years ago as part of the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreement, is meant to finance activities that boost nature, such as sustainable farming or patrolling wildlife reserves.

But there was no consensus as talks dragged on beyond the summit’s scheduled end on Friday, during which dozens of delegations departed.

By Saturday morning’s roll call, there was no longer a quorum among the nearly 200 nations for an agreement to pass, forcing organisers to abruptly suspend the meeting.

Human activities such as farming, mining, and urban development are increasingly pushing nature into crisis, with one million or so plant and animal species thought to be at risk of extinction.

The Great Barrier Reef
Record-breaking marine heatwaves are causing mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. (Dean Lewins/AAP PHOTOS)

Climate change, a result of fossil fuel burning, is also adding to nature’s woes by raising temperatures and disrupting weather cycles.

Countries will meet again in Azerbaijan next week for the UN’s COP29 climate summit, which again will be focused on the steep need for funding from wealthy nations to their poorer counterparts to help shoulder climate costs.

Even before the talks broke down, developed nations had signalled an unwillingness to offer large amounts of cash.

European governments including Germany and the Netherlands have slashed their foreign aid budgets over the last year, while France and the UK are also cutting back.

Government development money specifically targeted at nature conservation abroad fell to $US3.8 billion ($A5.8 billion) in 2022 compared with $US4.6 billion ($A7.0 billion) in 2015, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

At COP16, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres demanded that countries make significant new contributions to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.

The response was muted.

Nations at COP16 pledged $US163 million ($A247 million) in contributions to the fund, bringing total contributions to roughly $US400 million ($A607 million) – far from a major contribution to the $US30 billion ($A45 billion) target from nations by 2030.

The US, which is not a party to UN Convention on Biological Diversity, has not contributed.

“The public money is already leveraged as much as we can,” Florika Fink-Hooijer, the European Union’s director general of environment, told reporters.

“We now have to look at other sources of funding.”

When it came to going after private capital, delegates agreed to a plan to charge pharmaceutical and other companies for their use of genetic information in the research and development of new commercial products.

Experts estimate the plan could generate about $US1 billion ($A1.5 billion) annually.

That still doesn’t cover the billions needed to halt the collapse of ecosystems, like the Amazon rainforest or coral reefs.

The world will need to devise ways for enticing private investment in nature-friendly projects, said Marcos Neto, director of global policy at the UN Development Program.

Some tools include green bonds or debt-for-nature swaps, whereby countries refinance their debt at lower interest rates in order to spend the savings on conservation.

Reuters