It's UN Summit season: on biodiversity, climate, desertification
🌐 What happened in Cali, looking ahead to Baku & Riyadh.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
WorldWise reader—
No doubt about it, some pretty momentous developments keep shaking up the world as we know it. Covid, conflict, economic crisis, climate extremes, strongman politics. They keep on coming, and there are days when it’s hard to move past the upheaval or believe in something better.
True an experience as that may be, equally true is that hopelessness is a barren place to be. Nothing can grow from it.
Instead, we can use our time to keep the ground warm; keep planting the seeds; keep ourselves together to keep going. There’s still work to do in wintertime.
Anita
INSIGHT | views & analysis
Eyes on COPs.
The last quarter of the year is always buzzing with global summits. The climate COP used to get all the attention. We picked up signs of the biodiversity COP building momentum since 2021, and a little more in 2022, until this year’s gathering in Colombia which reports suggest was the largest yet.
We look at what came of the biodiversity summit in a roundup that also brings the third ‘desertification COP’ into the fold.
First, let’s look back.
BIODIVERSITY | What happened at COP16 in Cali
The COP16 biodiversity summit came to an end on Saturday in Cali, Colombia, after nearly two weeks of negotiations and discussions among delegates from nearly 200 countries.
After a marathon last night of talks that ran over by almost 12 hours, the meeting closed abruptly when it dawned on negotiators that smaller-country delegations were rushing out to catch their flights. There were no longer enough governments in the room for any decisions to count, leaving key agenda items hanging.
Going into this summit, the big hope for advocates of the protection agenda was to agree two key points: the allocation of resources to implement the Kunming-Montreal pact adopted in 2022, and methods for tracking progress on goals.
So, what happened? Here’s what it boils down to:
Positive moves
#1 | A new ‘Cali Fund’ on nature’s DNA: Despite pushback from pharmaceutical and agritech companies, countries agreed to set up a new mechanism to share the benefits from use of genetic resources—or Digital Sequencing Information (DSI)—and compensate countries where those resources originate. This means that any company that makes money from using DNA from plants or animals to make and sell products like medicines, cosmetics or seeds, is expected to allocate either 1% of their profits or 0.1% of their revenue to the new fund. Many commercially traded products use genetic data from nature that are often found in species from poor countries, and money channelled through this mechanism is expected to finance nature protection efforts in countries or origin.
There are two important points to highlight about the decision: one, that it calls for at least half of the funding to go directly to Indigenous people; and two—perhaps the key point—is that any contributions to the fund are voluntary rather than mandatory.
Oscar Soria with the Common Initiative called it a "unique funding mechanism," but said its voluntary status could be a problem. "The mechanism’s effectiveness will likely depend on the global community’s willingness to support it and on corporate recognition of the value in participating for reputational gain," he said in a story by Politico.
#2 | Permanent Body for Indigenous Peoples—including People of African Descent: COP16 created a new permanent body which grants Indigenous people a voice—and formal decision-making power—to influence negotiations and decisions made under the convention. Among key goals of the new body are to tackle threats to environmental defenders, and barriers to Indigenous communities accessing funding and land tenure. The decision also recognises Afro-descendent communities for their role in protecting nature and implementing biodiversity agreements.
Indigenous delegations erupted into cheers and tears after the historic decision was announced, according to reports.
“With this decision, the value of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and local communities is recognized, and a 26-year-old historical debt in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is settled,” Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister and COP16 president, posted on social media platform X shortly after the announcement, reports AP News.
#3 | Action Plan on Health: The Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health, a new voluntary action plan, was agreed after four years of negotiations. The idea is to support governments to take joined-up action on connections between biodiversity and health, integrating those connections into policy.
Other baby-steps forward:
There were signs of moving towards aligning climate, biodiversity, desertification and health objectives. Some of this was reflected in agenda items that signal progress towards establishing a joint work programme to institutionalise these synergies. But the final text of the agreement excluded explicit language on transitioning away from fossil fuels. And some developing countries are concerned that integration could lead to double-counting funding.
Governments were encouraged to integrate diverse methods of valuing nature into their decision-making processes (through the inclusion of IPBES’ Values Assessment within the CBD framework).
COP16 launched a new “mainstreaming champions” group, led by Mexico and Colombia with 17 member nations, which aims to drive integration of biodiversity considerations across a range of policies that impact ecosystems.
Unresolved issues
However—decisions on the hard targets of COP16 were suspended, and will need to be revisited at future meetings.
#1 | Financing: Money is usually the hot topic, and this Summit is no exception. The new pledges made during COP16 (between $163 and $396 million—reports vary) fall short of the billions a year needed by 2030, and countries failed to make headway on how to close the finance gap. A fund for this purpose was created at COP15 in Montreal, which is hosted by the Global Environment Facility. But countries critical of how it’s channelling the money pushed for a new fund to replace it, leading to opposition by developed countries which argued that this would make things more complicated without necessarily bringing in new money. The disagreements and counter-proposals gradually led to the meeting fizzling out on the last day, prompting some to question the process as well as political will.
“Observers of the talks said the lack of agreement on future funding for nature conservation around the world could hold back government efforts to present updated national biodiversity plans—which are a critical tool for meeting a global goal to protect at least 30% of the world’s land and water ecosystems by 2030 and a cornerstone of an international nature pact agreed two years ago in Montreal”, according to Climate Home News.
#2 | Updated national biodiversity plans: By close of play on 2 November, only 44 of the 196 parties to the convention had shared their national plants to protect biodiversity—and many of those submitted fall short of having adequate plans to meet the agreed 30×30 conservation target. African countries in particular are missing in action, citing a lack of resources. Also missing are national plans by major biodiverse countries such as Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
#3 | A monitoring framework: COP16 failed to agree on the technical monitoring framework needed to track progress on national targets and plans to protect nature. Reports suggest there was consensus on the pre-meeting draft, so this was an unexpected failure that some call the biggest disappointment of the Summit. There was agreement on some major indicators but not on other key metrics, such as whether coral reef indicators should be included.
On suspending the summit, the UN biodiversity secretariat said governments would need to reconvene before the next meeting to resolve pending issues—Yerevan, Armenia, was voted as the host of COP17 in 2026.
Looking ahead
I’ll kick this off with a quote from Jaqueline Sordi, who writes in Sumauma:
A worsening climate and the destruction of Nature are connected but treated separately at parallel global events that dialog very little with each other, hindering an effective response to the world’s polycrisis.
CLIMATE CHANGE | What to watch at COP29 in Baku
COP29, scheduled to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11-22, is set to focus on a few key issues:
New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Finance: The the top issue to watch, and why observers are already calling this summit “the Finance COP”. NCQC is the goal to establish a new climate finance target to replace the previous $100 billion per year pledge, a target set 15 years ago.
Loss and Damage Fund: Expect discussions on the operational details of the newly established fund for helping countries recover losses and damage caused by climate change, including progress to date and eligibility criteria.
International Carbon Markets: Negotiations will continue on the rules for international carbon trading under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which include decisions on what qualifies as a carbon credit and how to ensure that transactions are transparent.
Enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): Countries are expected to submit new, more ambitious and equitable NDCs to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Climate Finance Transparency: There will be discussions on ensuring that climate finance contributions are transparent and that funds are used effectively.
Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA): Discussions on this goal will include feedback on the work of thematic experts who have started developing indicators to measure progress toward the GGA.
📌 More details and sources available for paid subscribers here (a free trial is available).
DESERTIFICATION | What’s on the agenda at COP16 in Riyadh
COP16 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from December 2-13. These discussions are aimed at promoting sustainable land use and combating desertification.
The conference will focus on actions to restore land and boost resilience to drought. Discussions are expected to include sand and dust storms; the role of gender and land tenure; and how measures taken under the Convention can tackle land degradation issues that drive migration. Among the emerging issues on the table are grassland management and sustainable agri-food systems.
In terms of process, key agenda items include:
Midterm Evaluation of the 2018-2030 Strategic Framework—assessment of progress made so far and areas that need improvement.
Comprehensive Multi-Year Workplan—discussion of a new workplan for 2025-2028 and a two-year costed work programme for 2025-2026.
Relationships with Other Conventions—one of the priorities is to strengthen relationships with other relevant conventions, organisations and other institutions.
Financial Performance and Contributions—review of the financial performance of the Convention trust funds and the status of contributions.
Desertification has been overlooked by the media so far, but expect that to change before long as the world’s water resources continue to dry up—and if this sister convention can grab a share of the spotlight. Perhaps some editors and journos out there can take note.
GLOBAL BRIEFING | around the world
Highlights
💧 Drying up—Nearly half of the Earth’s surface had at least one month of extreme drought last year, three times as high as the land area affected by extreme drought in the 1980s, Stephanie Hegarty and Talha Burki report for the BBC. A separate report found that last year rivers dried up at the highest rate in three decades, Helena Horton reports for The Guardian. And yet another report finds that growing water scarcity will put half the world’s food production at risk of failure within the next 25 years, Fiona Harvey reports for The Guardian.
🐄 Responsible Brazilian beef—In a move not unrelated to the EU regulations we covered earlier this month, Dayanne Sousa and Clarice Couto report for Bloomberg on Brazil’s new plan to fight deforestation by tracking its cattle herds through a platform that will allow meat packers to trace their supplies from 2027. In a related development, Cristen Hemingway Jaynes reports for Ecowatch that Brazil’s environmental protection agency has handed large fines to major meat packing and cattle ranching operations whose business is associated with illegally deforested land in the Amazon.
💰 Debt vs climate risk—the world’s 26 low-income countries are still poorer than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic while their vulnerability to climate change is growing, according to a World Bank report covered by Al Jazeera. Their debt repayments are twice as high as what they get in climate finance, according to an IIED report covered by Chloé Farand for Devex.
🌱 Carbon sinks—Plants are absorbing about a third more carbon dioxide than previously thought, according to a new scientific assessment covered by Eurasia Review—but a separate assessment finds that last year the world’s land and trees couldn’t absorb excess CO2 emissions, Patrick Greenfield reports for The Guardian.
🖊 Disrupted education—Primary schools are shutting down for a week in Lahore, Pakistan, as air pollution hits record-highs, report Al Jazeera and AP. In West and Central Africa, about 10 million children across four countries are also out of school because of regional floods that damaged infrastructure and displaced nearly one million from their homes, according to a ReliefWeb report.
⚡️ Cuba in the dark—Nearly 11 million people were left without electricity for four days when the grid collapsed last month in Cuba. The outage highlights a fragile energy system and wider social and economic challenges, according to World Politics Review, Vox and The Economist. This was followed by a deadly hurricane on the eastern part of the island, triggering rumblings of social unrest, reports Tortoise Media.
Spotlight on…BRICS+
The BRICS countries met in late October for their annual summit, which this year was held in Russia. As the original club that was made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa has now expanded to include seven more members, we’ll follow Foreign Policy’s lead and call it BRICS+. Is this bloc of countries attempting to strengthen multilateralism—or mount a challenge to the US-dominated world order?
Views shared in media coverage offer various readings of events, ranging from acknowledgment of the bloc’s value to deep scepticism of its capacity to have a serious impact. I’ll highlight just three takes (full roundup available here):
Parts of the narrative around BRICS+ centres around its symbolic value for Russia, in showing that it’s not isolated from the rest of the world; and by hosting 36 countries this year this has in some ways been achieved, write the editors of World Politics Review.
The idea that the bloc can ever challenge the US dollar is “for the fairies”, Reuters quotes Jim O’Neil, the former Goldman Sachs economist who came up with the acronym, in a comment that centres on internal tensions between China and India.
Keith Johnson reflects in a Foreign Policy piece on how remarkable it is that “an investment banker’s arbitrary acronym for a quartet of emerging market economies has become the rubric for rebellion”.
Seeking solutions
💡 🎥 A water pump from e-waste—in Malawi, where irrigation systems are too expensive for many farmers, a young entrepreneur is using electronic waste to create a cheap DIY pump, report Bouba Jalloh and Mirriam Kaliza for DW.
💡 Reviving traditional wells—water shortages are common in India’s Bengaluru city, but a project has been restoring thousands of traditional wells that tap overlooked aquifers in the region, Sushmita Pathak reports for The World.
💡 Looking to foods of the past—Africa’s neglected indigenous crops can help fight rising levels hunger: they’re often more nutritious and better suited to hot and dry conditions that are becoming more common with climate change, reports Jonathan W. Rosen for MIT Technology Review.
In other news
Electronic waste is set to rise fast over the next decade as AI applications and data centres demand frequent upgrades of high-performance computing hardware to cope with the volumes of content, according to research covered in RFI.
Malaria is back on the rise after a decade in Ethiopia, as a result of conflict, climate change, and drug resistance, write Maya Misikir and Stephanie Nolan in The New York Times. But neighbouring Egypt has now been declared malaria-free, Ayana Archie reports for NPR.
The global stockpile of oral cholera vaccines is now used up, the WHO has said while deaths from the disease worldwide have risen by 126% since the start of the year, AFP reports. Meanwhile, case of cholera in war-torn Sudan have surged by nearly 40% in less than two weeks, Fatma Khaled reports for AP.
More than 35% of the gold exported from Ecuador comes from a handful of small companies, but an investigation by Arturo Torres and Dan Collyns for Mongabay has revealed these companies and their associates actually sourced the gold from mostly illegal sources, with the involvement of mining regulators.
A drive to increase tourism in Kashmir is compromising the important ecosystem of the Gurez Valley, which lies on the Indian side of the border between Indian and Pakistani territories, reports Athar Parvaiz for Dialogue Earth.
Expansion of mining operations is behind a rise in land and environmental conflicts affecting Indigenous people in the Philippines, Janine Peralta reports for Dialogue Earth.
Villagers in Maharashtra, India, have long relied on “peve” or underground pits to store turmeric and keep it fresh for as long as a decade—but floods are wiping out these traditional storage solutions, reports Sanket Jain for Devex.
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PLUS | extras & highlights
Additional curated resources to support past and forthcoming UN summits is available for paid subscribers here (a free 7-day trial is available). This includes resource hubs, explainers and curated media reports for biodiversity and climate COPs, plus our roundup of what happened at the Forum for the Future.
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