By Will McCarry
October 14, 2024
Your guide to the UN biodiversity summit
6 min
Conservation International’s experts have consulted governments in the leadup to the summit and will be there to help make big gains for nature.
Here are three critical questions ahead of the summit:
Is the world on track to meet its goals?
Now, policymakers are gathering once again to assess progress on this bold promise to protect nearly a third of the planet.
“The framework passed at the last COP requires countries to clearly indicate how their national plans meet specific targets,” said Carly Siege, a policy expert at Conservation International. “So far, about a third of countries have submitted their plans, and each of them include a ‘30 by 30’ target.”
But that leaves over 100 countries behind the November 2024 deadline to finalize their biodiversity plans. Conservation International has emphasized the urgency of this issue, working closely with nations to help them meet their goals.
“In every region where we operate — Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific — our scientists, policy experts and local partners are collaborating to ensure countries’ updated biodiversity plans are both ambitious and scientifically sound,” said Jill Hepp, who leads Conservation International’s biodiversity policy work. “The summit in Colombia will focus on fostering collaboration, bringing together nations with established plans and those still working on them, to ensure that every country sets concrete, actionable targets.”
Blue and yellow macaw, Bolivia
How can we protect biodiversity and solve climate change at the same time?
But as of 2023, fewer than half the world’s countries had aligned their climate plans with their nature commitments.
According to Siege, these conflicting priorities can be addressed by having countries agree to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises in tandem — developing national climate and biodiversity plans that reinforce each other and are not isolated.
How will the world pay for all this?
“The linked crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are increasingly tormenting our lives, from catastrophic wildfires in the Amazon and water supply problems in Bogota, to historic flooding in North Carolina and Thailand,” said Patricia Zurita, chief strategy officer at Conservation International. “Negotiators cannot leave Cali without deciding where some of that funding will originate, when it will be delivered and what groups will receive it. Time is of the essence.”
“Conservation International is eager to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” she added.
Among the most pressing issues at the summit will be the reform of government subsidies — financial support given to industries to lower their costs in sectors like agriculture, energy and mining. Unfortunately, many of these subsidies end up funding activities that harm ecosystems, such as deforestation and overfishing.
“All over the world, taxpayers unknowingly finance the destruction of nature, as governments pour trillions into businesses that degrade our ecosystems,” Zurita said. “If countries cannot make meaningful progress to mobilize new resources and realign all harmful subsidies, then nature is in trouble.”
Conservation International will be advocating for a provision that would give clear guidance to governments, businesses organizations and others on identifying and repurposing subsidies for industries that drive nature loss.
“We must ensure capital reaches the right projects — specifically, efforts that simultaneously benefit biodiversity, climate and human well-being,” Zurita said.
“By building a strong, nature-based economy, we're protecting the Amazon rainforest for the 50 million people who live there, while taking a critical step toward aligning climate action, biodiversity conservation and human development,” said Rachel Biderman, who leads Conservation International’s work in the Americas. “Conservation International is proud to be a part of this effort, working to ensure that the network’s commitments are translated into tangible actions.”
The Amazon
Stay close to the work
