The world’s biggest nature protection conference opened in Colombia on Monday with its president calling for urgent action and financing to reverse humankind’s rapacious destruction of biodiversity.
“The planet doesn’t have time to lose,” Colombian Environment Minister and COP16 president Susana Muhamad told delegates from nearly 200 countries as she opened the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
“We all agree that we are underfunded for this mission, we all agree that we need further sources of funding,” said Muhamad, as she urged parties to use the event to take stock and make further commitments.
“We now, all together, must deliver… Cali 2024 could be a light in this very dark world.”
About 12,000 delegates, including 140 government ministers and a dozen heads of state were expected at the largest-ever biodiversity COP running until November 1.
Themed “Peace with Nature,” it has the …