Cali (Colombia), October 20, 2024 - At the opening ceremony of COP16, Colombia made a call to the world to make Peace with Nature. Over the next 12 days, as host of the Conference of the Parties, it will bring together more than 190 countries to address the most pressing global challenges in biodiversity protection.
With a record attendance of more than 21,000 pre-registered delegates, COP16 becomes the largest gathering in the history of this biodiversity summit, attracting representatives from nearly every country on the planet.
“Peace cannot be consolidated in a territory without the inclusion of diversity, without the inclusion of specific knowledge, without also making Peace with Nature. And that is why from this experience, from this vital search, which as President Petro said is also today in the heart of the world, Colombia is hosting this COP16 to invite the world to seek this Peace with Nature,” said Susana Muhamad, incoming president of COP16 and Minister of Environment of Colombia.
Muhamad said that during this COP16 a step must be taken towards the implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Framework. “It is basically about recomposing the way we live, recomposing the development model, recomposing, rethinking, rediscovering how we live together in diversity, in a system that does not permanently generate nature as a victim of development, that on the contrary, our own reproduction as a society reproduces life,” she said.
The incoming president of COP16 assured that biodiversity conservation is deeply linked to climate action, and that due to the extractivist use of natural resources, 50% of greenhouse gas emissions are generated today, but at the same time this is also causing 90% of biodiversity loss. “Powerfully recovering ecosystems and nature can contribute almost 40% to the solution of stabilizing the climate and the carbon cycle,” he emphasized.
“Hopefully COP16 in Cali will be that first objective, that first place where ants, without speaking, come together to mobilize life and mobilize Peace with Nature,” Muhamad concluded.
At the opening of the event, the Colombian Minister of Environment, Susana Muhamad, invited the world to generate a great mobilization to make Peace with Nature.
A call for decarbonization to face the climate crisis
Durante su discurso de apertura, el presidente de Colombia Gustavo Petro aseguró que “es fundamental hoy cambiar deuda por acción climática. “No puede existir el riesgo como criterio de medida de la tasa de interés, ni así tasar los préstamos. Rebajar el riesgo en la deuda del tercer mundo es hoy sustancial. Si los fondos de capital y los fondos de pensiones de los países vivos cimentan su rentabilidad en las economías de los países pobres, dejarán a la humanidad sin los instrumentos para superar la crisis climática”.
“Only by exchanging country risk for climate action, will we be able to finance the Marshall plan to stop the climate crisis on the planet: to decarbonize the entire economy. They charge a risk premium to those who absorb the CO2 spewed by the planet's mega-rich, that is a real deadly contradiction,” said Petro.
Colombia opened its doors to host more than 190 countries at COP16, a decisive meeting to advance in the protection of the planet's biodiversity.
Art and culture, symbols of Peace with Nature at COP16
During the ceremony, attendees enjoyed the cultural act 'From Water and Earth', produced by the National Center for the Arts of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia, evoked the intimate connection between humans and natural elements with indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant and rural communities as protagonists. Likewise, the sound show called 'Peace with Nature', motivated to reflect on the importance of peace and environmental protection.
This meeting in Cali is expected to be decisive in ensuring compliance with the goals of the 2030 framework. Colombia, as host country, reinforces its position as a global leader in the environmental agenda, ratifying its commitment to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity.
The opening cultural event showed the close relationship between human beings and nature with indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant and rural communities.
COP16 represents a unique opportunity for the world to unite in the fight to preserve biodiversity and ensure a sustainable future for all forms of life on the planet.
The event promises to be a key milestone in the implementation of the ambitious goals and 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework 2030, which includes, among other targets, protecting 30% of the world's land and seas by 2030, reducing harmful subsidies, and restoring degraded ecosystems.