UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Groundhog Day at the 2024 United Nations biodiversity conference: What COP 16 can teach us for reforming environmental summits

Identification

Public canonical key

radar:r-bfcd6a317c8a3a2cc7c4fe5f70ed3264

Authors

Fariborz Zelli

Reported year

2025

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-14T09:05:12.743145+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-14T09:05:12.743145+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Lund University

Reported affiliation countries

SE

Documentary abstract — original language

With 23,000 registered participants and unprecedented media attention, the 16th conference of the parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia, was the largest in the 32-year history of these biannual meetings. In terms of successes, the Cali conference established a new subsidiary body to protect concerns of indigenous communities and local populations as defenders of nature, along with a new voluntary mechanism on benefit-sharing. The Cali COP may also be remembered for its civil society zone which turned into a vibrant platform of social and cultural encounters. On a more critical note though, negotiations in Cali shared the fate of the climate COP in Baku just two weeks later and, arguably, of inflated environmental summits in general. They were slowed down by typical bargaining strategies and stalemates and failed to address crucial implementation, financing and review gaps. While the conference was suspended unceremoniously on November 2, 2024, the much more concise resumed sessions in December 2024 and February 2025 achieved crucial breakthroughs on these matters. A lesson learned from these turnarounds is to complement larger COPs more regularly with smaller and solution-oriented meetings with decision-making power – instead of using such formats only for firefighting. Moreover, to avoid exaggerated greenwashing and lobbying like in Cali, future COPs should exhibit a more equitable representation of non-governmental actors and benefit from a more careful selection process of conference venues.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

https://openalex.org/W4410538117

DOI

10.1016/j.esg.2025.100259

Documentary context

Documentary family

article

Source-reported types

article

Publishers

Elsevier BV

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1

• Document · https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2025.100259

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

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