The United Nations COP16 biodiversity talks in Cali, Colombia, were suspended Saturday after rich countries blocked a proposal to set up a new fund to help poorer nations restore their depleted natural environments.
The decision, taken by a group of developed countries including the European Union, Japan and Canada, left African and Latin American nations furious and prompted some to refuse to engage in talks on other matters.
It was a bitter end to a conference that many had hoped would inject fresh energy into the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an ambitious treaty that aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss globally.
While the talks yielded agreement on key issues — including compensation for the commercial use of biological information and the creation of a subsidiary body designed to ensure Indigenous groups are included at every level of the Kunming-Montreal agreement — the failure to make progress on financing met with disappointment.
