Page 53 - Bulletin, Vol.83 No.3, December 2024

THERE IS COP AND COP

By Odette FOUDRAL

COP16

COP16 on Biodiversity (or 16th Conference of the Parties) will be held in 2024 in
1
Colombia, in Cali. The event will be the first COP to be organised since the adoption of
the Kunming-Montreal Agreement on 19 December 2022, which set the framework for
2
3
international action to address the loss of biodiversity and threats to ecosystems .
COP16 will therefore have a crucial role to play in institutionalising an international
policy to protect biodiversity, within the framework of the Convention on Biological
Diversity. In particular, it will have to decide how the efforts of the world governments
4
towards biodiversity protection will need to be monitored and developed.
COP16 will also be the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties
to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable
Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.

Dates of COP16
COP16 will take place from 21 October to 1 November 2024 in Cali, Colombia.

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Colombia was chosen to host this COP after Turkey withdrew its application after the
country was hit by the strong earthquakes of 2023.

Objectives of COP16

COP16 will be the first Conference of the Parties to be organised after the historic
agreement signed in 2022, which has set goals for the signatory States in terms of
biodiversity protection. At COP16, governments will have to assess the state of
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implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at COP15 . In other
words, they will have to assess progress made towards attaining the targets set in 2022.

Designing an operational framework to monitor progress made by States towards these
objectives, similar to that of the Paris Climate Agreement, will be entrusted to the
COP16 in Colombia. This will involve setting the timetable for future meetings, with a
regular reassessment of targets and progress. The challenge will also be to mobilise
resources, particularly financial and technical resources, to reach the objectives set by
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the Kunming-Montreal Agreement .

1 https://www.novethic.fr/lexique/detail/cop.html
2 https://www.novethic.fr/definition/accord-de-kunming-montreal
3 https://www.novethic.fr/lexique/detail/ecosysteme.html
4 https://www.novethic.fr/lexique/detail/biodiversite.html
5 https://www.cbd.int/article/colombia-host-cop16
6 https://www.novethic.fr/lexique/detail/cop-15.html
7 https://www.novethic.fr/definition/accord-de-kunming-montreal

AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 83 No.3, 2024-12 51

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