In November last year, the UN meeting COP16 on biological diversity was concluded without resolving any of the most important issues. An extra meeting in Rome was the solution to clarify the details. But now, even that meeting is in its final hours, without an agreement having been reached.
Charlotta Sörqvist is Sweden's chief negotiator.
What is the situation in the negotiations right now?
I think it's heard in the room that there is a growing willingness to compromise.
Will the whole thing go through?
I believe there are conditions for it. But there is a risk that we won't make it if time doesn't suffice.
Different Opinions
What is it that's so hard to agree on?
We agree on a lot. It's the charm but also the challenge of almost all the world's countries being here on site.
It's the how-questions we're talking about now. That's where you can have different opinions. Different parts of the world work in different ways.
According to Sörqvist, the negotiations will continue until "late tonight".
Hostage
Also present in Rome is Anki Ljungman, delegate for WWF International. According to her, there are three main points that it's all about
Partly, it's about how to raise and manage money. Then how to measure how the goals will be achieved. But also the cooperation forward with other organizations, for example, linked to climate work.
Ljungman believes, like Sörqvist, that a late decision is waiting – if it comes. The financial issue is central, and if it gets a solution, the rest will come quickly afterwards, in areas where there is already basically an agreement.
The other questions are a bit hostage to the financing question, she says.
Our Future
Ljungman emphasizes, however, the importance of actually reaching an agreement in the coming hours:
It's about what the world's countries agreed on in December 2022. That we're facing a nature crisis. Biological diversity is the prerequisite for our food, our health, and our quality of life. It's about clean air, clean water. It's the prerequisite for functioning ecosystems that, in turn, are the prerequisite for our future.
COP16 in Cali, Colombia, was concluded in November 2024 without the biggest issues being resolved. However, some agreements were reached among the world's countries. Among other things:
A permanent organ will be established to represent the interests of indigenous peoples and local communities in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
It was decided to create a fund to distribute the benefits from digital genetic information. The information can be used to create new products – food, medicine, and cosmetics – and the developers can earn billions on it. The fund aims to share a certain part of the profits with the communities where the species come from.
