COP16 biodiversity talks to restart in February: UN

Crunch United Nations talks to find funding to curb the destruction of nature will resume in Rome in February, the UN said on Thursday, after negotiations this month in Colombia ended without a deal.

The largest summit yet on biodiversity -- the so-called COP16 talks in Cali, Colombia -- were aimed at boosting efforts to protect nature from deforestation, overexploitation, climate change and pollution.

But the meeting, which stretched hours into extra time, ended on November 2 with no agreement on a roadmap to ramp up funding for species protection. Many delegates had already left for home by then, meaning the Colombian presidency was unable to establish a quorum.

The new round of talks will be held at the headquarters of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization from February 25 to 27 to tackle issues "left unresolved following the suspension of the meeting", the UN said in a statement.

"In the weeks to come, and during our meeting in Rome this February, I will work alongside parties to build the trust and consensus needed to achieve Peace with Nature," said Colombia's Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, the COP16 president.

She added that securing a key financial accord "will be central to our efforts".

Money has been a particularly thorny subject at recent UN environment negotiations, as nations face global political and economic uncertainties.

Negotiators at fractious UN climate talks were able to approve a deal in the early hours of Sunday morning after two weeks of chaotic and bitter wrangling, but the $300 billion a year pledge from wealthy historic polluters was immediately dismissed as insultingly low by many poorer nations.

Deadlocked

The Cali summit, which drew an unprecedented 23,000 participants, was tasked with assessing, and ramping up, progress toward reaching a range of targets set in Canada two years ago to halt humankind's rapacious destruction of the natural world by 2030.

They include placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection, reducing pollution, and phasing out agricultural and other subsidies harmful to nature.

For this purpose, it was agreed in 2022 that $200 billion per year be made available to protect biodiversity by 2030, including the transfer of $30 billion per year from rich to poor nations.

The Cali meeting did make advances on Indigenous representation and gene profit sharing.

But negotiators, largely split between poor and rich country blocs, were deadlocked over the biggest ask -- to lay out a detailed funding plan.

That was despite new research showing that more than a quarter of assessed plants and animals are now at risk of extinction.

Only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are estimated to be protected and conserved.