The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity opened on Monday in the city of Cali and will continue until November 1.

With the theme “Peace with Nature,” it has the urgent task of proposing monitoring and financing mechanisms to achieve the 23 United Nations nature protection goals agreed in Canada two years ago.

Susana Muhamad, COP16 president and Colombia’s environment minister, said Friday that negotiations had progressed “very well,” adding that “a lot of work has progressed during this week.”

Resource mobilization remains “one of the most difficult issues,” she told reporters in Cali, “because of the very different views of the parties.”

Last Sunday, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged the 196 signatories to the biodiversity convention to “turn their words into action” and to fuel the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund created last year to achieve the objectives of the UN.

So far, countries have committed about $250 million to the fund, according to monitoring agencies.

As part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Framework for Biodiversity finalized in 2022, countries must mobilize at least $200 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity, including $20 billion per year by 2025 from rich countries to help developing countries.

One of the main objectives of the Cali COP is to agree on a mechanism to share the benefits of genetic information extracted from plants and animals, for medical purposes for example, with the communities from which they come.

On this issue, Muhamad said that “the parties come together around a common vision.”

Around 23,000 delegates, including nearly 180 ministers and seven heads of state, are accredited for what constitutes the largest biodiversity COP ever organized.

With around one million known species worldwide estimated to be at risk of extinction, delegates have their work cut out for them.

There are only five years left to reach the goal of placing 30% of land and sea areas under protection by 2030.

“The reason we are here today is because we understand that we are losing biodiversity at a rate that is not sustainable,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). .

“The progress made in Cali will give impetus” to the process, she added.