The Vatican and other Catholic groups sent representatives to join the 23,000 delegates at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Colombia. Source: The Tablet.
Delegations from nearly 200 countries attended the conference, two years after the announcement of a global agreement to halt and reverse rapid planetary biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse.
The 12-day 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference – known as COP16 – opened in Cali, in southwest Colombia, on October 21, focusing on the implementation and progress of countries in meeting targets agreed at COP15 in 2022.
There, the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Diversity Framework set out long-term goals for the planet’s biodiversity, most to be achieved by 2050. However, 30 per cent of lands and waters need urgent action by 2030 for preservation.
Amy Echeverria, the US-based Columban International Coordinator for Justice, Peace, and Ecology, attended the conference. She said the coalition was “monitoring how countries are updating their National Biodiversity Action Plans to be in line with the framework”.
“Midway through the negotiations, the voices of indigenous peoples, local communities, women, youth and faith are strong and clear,” Ms Echeverria said.
“Our faith contingent is bigger than ever and our synergies with the other civil society constituencies are deeper than ever.
“Even as countries continue to struggle to find consensus, civil society is getting on with the work to care for the world’s cultural and biological diversity. While we hope for the best, regardless of outcomes at COP16, we will not be deterred.”
Pax Christi International and the Laudato Si Movement were among other organisations participating and hosting the 21 side events organised by Catholic campaign groups, which also held prayer and meditation daily.
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Church groups commit to biodiversity at COP16 (By Ellen Teague, The Tablet)
