New Delhi, Oct 20 : Climate change and loss of biodiversity are interconnected. Countries meeting at COP16 have a chance to address both.

From Monday, business leaders, youth groups, observer organisations, indigenous people, local communities and representatives from 190 countries, including India, will gather in the Colombian city of Cali till November 1 for the United Nations biodiversity summit known as COP16.

It includes a high-level ministerial segment on October 29-30 to advance negotiations and highlight the global importance of protecting and restoring nature through four goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030.

Loss of biodiversity continues at an alarming rate as previously agreed global goals and targets have been unsuccessful in reversing this trend.

India aims to release its updated national biodiversity targets at the COP16, the first biodiversity Conference of Parties (COP) since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), a multilateral treaty, at COP15 in December 2022 in Montreal in Canada.

The GBF and its monitoring framework aim to reverse the decline of nature. It tasks governments to report progress towards 23 targets and four goals but also 'invites parties and relevant organisations to support community-based monitoring and information systems and citizen science' to improve information for decision-making and build support for conservation efforts throughout society.

The GBF, agreed by 196 countries under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in December 2022, includes 23 action targets for 2030 towards four long-term goals for 2050 to halt and reverse the dangerous, ongoing loss of biodiversity.

At COP16, governments will be tasked with reviewing the state of implementation of the GBF. Parties to the convention are expected to show the alignment of their national biodiversity strategies and action plans with the framework.

COP16 will further develop the monitoring framework and advance resource mobilisation for the GBF. Among other tasks, COP16 is also due to finalise and operationalise the multilateral mechanism on the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources.

'Let me also express my enthusiasm to work with the government of Colombia, and in particular H.E. Susana Muhamad, our incoming president, to ensure that the outcomes of COP16 accelerate action at all levels to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity,' Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention of Biological Diversity, remarked.

The COP16 High-Level Segment aims to secure high-level political support for the final stages of international negotiations on key issues, including the establishment of a multilateral mechanism to share benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, mobilising resources to close the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year.

Last week, Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Kirti Vardhan Singh, held a courtesy meeting with Jorge Enrique Rojas Rodriguez, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia focused on key global issues such as climate change and biodiversity.

During their discussions, Singh shared details of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' campaign, a unique initiative aimed at promoting environmental responsibility while honouring the respect and devotion toward mothers.

'Looking forward to leading the Indian delegation to COP-16 at Cali, Colombia,' wrote Singh on X.

Governments far short of pledge to conserve 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030, alarms a report by a consortium of nature NGOs and funders in the run-up to the COP16.

Two years after the world's nations committed to conserve at least 30 per cent of the earth's land, freshwater, and ocean by 2030, only 2.8 per cent of the ocean is assessed as likely to be effectively protected, reveals the report.

The report, 'On track or off course? Assessing progress toward the 30x30 target in the ocean,' reveals that countries are significantly falling short of that pledge.

Only 8.3 per cent of the world's oceans are designated as marine protected areas and most are either protected in name only or so loosely regulated that substantial harmful activities are allowed to continue within them.

Moreover, as of September 23, just 19 countries and the EU had submitted national biodiversity strategies and action plans with national marine biodiversity targets to the CBD Secretariat -- a critical first step in the biodiversity conservation process.

The '30x30' target, agreed at the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in 2022, is the most ambitious conservation commitment ever made. However, the report finds that the global marine area under some form of protection has increased by just 0.5 per cent since then.

At that rate of progress, just 9.7 per cent of the ocean will be protected by 2030.

In a foreword to the report, John Kerry, former US Secretary of State, and José María Figueres, Former President of Costa Rica, call on governments to 'act together with urgency' to meet the 30x30 target.

They say: 'Protecting and conserving at least 30 per cent of the world's ocean is vital to safeguard marine biodiversity and the billions of people who depend on it for their livelihoods and food security. It is also essential to preserving the ocean's ability to act as our greatest climate ally by absorbing billions of tonnes of carbon emissions every year.'

The COP16 also includes meetings on biosafety, and on access and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

/IANS