Resumed Session of the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference - CBD COP 16 / CP-MOP 11 / NP-MOP 5

Biodiversity underpins all life on the planet, but it is vanishing at unprecedented rates. A policy shift away from ‘business as usual’ is required to reverse this trend and put nature on a path to recovery. Adoption of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was a crucial step in this direction. Its implementation will show whether it can steer the transformative change needed.

Focusing on implementation, the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference convened from 21 October to 2 November 2024, in Cali, Colombia. The meeting adopted a series of important decisions towards implementation of the GBF and the three CBD objectives, namely biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of genetic resources. Among other items, the meeting:

• adopted a decision on the operationalization of the multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism from use of digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources, and established the Cali Fund;
• established a permanent Subsidiary Body on Article 8(j) and other CBD provisions related to Indigenous Peoples and local communities;
• adopted modalities for ecologically or biologically significant marine areas; and
• reviewed the development of national targets and the alignment of national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) with the GBF.

Negotiations on resource mobilization, however, were unsuccessful. A late night/early morning debate on establishing a dedicated global financing instrument for biodiversity under the authority of the Conference of the Parties (COP) did not result in agreement. The meeting was suspended due to loss of quorum in the early hours of 2 November, with a number of decisions left pending. These include:

• resource mobilization;
• the GBF monitoring framework;
• mechanisms for planning, monitoring, reporting, and review, including the global review of collective progress in GBF implementation;
• the financial mechanism; and
• other items, including cooperation with other conventions, the multi-year programme of the work, and matters related to the appointment of executive secretaries.

The integrated budget of the Convention and its Protocols was adopted by silence procedure from 3 - 6 December 2024.

The resumed session will focus on the unresolved items. The session will resume concurrent meetings of the governing bodies of the CBD and its Protocols: the 16th meeting of the CBD COP, the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (MOP 11) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (MOP 5) to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from their Utilization (ABS). The resumed session will convene from 25 - 27 February 2025, at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, in Rome, Italy.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) writers for this meeting are Elsa Tsioumani, Ph.D.; Katarina Hovden; Asterios Tsioumanis, Ph.D.; and Emma Vovk. The Digital Editor is Mike Muzurakis. The Editor is Pam Chasek, Ph.D.