UN Biodiversity Talks Shift From Implementation to ‘Encouragement’ at Midpoint
In Colombia, negotiators are working through a host of thorny issues, particularly how to finance ecosystem protection.
Mobilizing more funds to protect nature is proving to be “one of the most difficult issues,” said Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister and COP16 president.
Photographer: Tomas Ayuso/BloombergThis year’s biodiversity talks — known as COP16 — were dubbed at the outset as a chance to implement protections. At the midpoint, they’ve become a “COP of encouragement,” Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, said during a press conference on Friday.
Still, she assured reporters at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia, that progress is being made. Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister and COP16 president, described the negotiations as “constructive.” But progress remains painstakingly slow on a number of fronts.