Kew at COP16

The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took place in Colombia in October 2024.  

This UN Biodiversity Conference was the first since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreed at COP15 in 2022. The GBF goals focused on halting and restoring biodiversity loss, increasing sustainable use of natural resources, and ensuring fair and equitable access and benefit sharing (ABS) between both users and providers of those resources. 

Following the COP, our Director of Science, Alexandre Antonelli said the following:

COP16 saw some important successes in securing agreements on the creation of a new “Cali” fund to share the benefits generated by use of Digital Sequence Information and a permanent body for Indigenous Peoples; we congratulate the Colombian presidency for these achievements. However, we are disappointed that more progress could not be made on critical issues of financing and monitoring the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) that was agreed two years ago. 

 

As Parties return, we must now ensure that the agreements that were made are delivered upon, for instance that the new Cali fund generates much needed funding to preserve biodiversity. 

 

We must also remember that this is the critical decade to change the trajectory of biodiversity loss and time is running out. We need urgent, collective action. With 2 years until the next biodiversity COP, we cannot wait. We urge everyone to step up and play their part in getting the GBF on track.

Three collective themes that dominated the COP:

1. Ambition: countries had to submit their national biodiversity action plans in advance and the CBD Secretariat – the group responsible for supporting and overseeing the delivery of the CBD - will be assessing collective ambition towards delivering the 2030 targets.

2. Progress: 2 years on from COP15 in Montreal, in what’s been described as a critical decade for action, what progress has been made? 

3. Funding: there is a critical shortfall in overall funding for biodiversity conservation, and a wide range of options will be discussed to try and bridge the funding gap, including biodiversity credits. There is also a complex issue of a funding mechanism to increase benefit-sharing from information derived from natural genetic resources (digital sequencing information, or ‘DSI’) which needs to be resolved. 

At Kew, our mission is to understand and protect plants and fungi for the wellbeing of people and the future of all life on Earth. 

A Kew delegation was present at COP16, in Cali, where we shone a light on the darkspots of biodiversity knowledge and the untapped potential of fungi, provided the scientific advice and evidence to inform financing mechanisms like biodiversity credits and standards, and convened a wider range of actors for discussions on the trajectory to 2030. 

We're also asked organisations and individuals to sign the 2030 Declaration on Scientific Plant and Fungal collecting, which commits to evidence-based, collaborative research to better understand our planet's biodiversity. At COP16, our scientists’ research helped to ensure that expert and evidence-based science underpins decision making. 

At COP16, Kew advocated for:

• Ambition and urgent, concerted, collective action to deliver the 2030 targets. 
• Everyone to step up and play their part.  
• Public and private sector funding in the timeframe and at the level needed to meet the deadlines this decade. 
• Strong participation and empowerment of indigenous and local communities, including women.

We will look to support countries and partners with the evidence and capacity building to shape best practice, to inform the public about the biodiversity crisis and inspire people to become advocates of nature, and engage policymakers to ensure plants and fungi are front and centre of their biodiversity plans and actions. 

Find out more about how we're working to preserve biodiversity and its sustainable use below.