The UN biodiversity summit known as COP16 officially opened in Colombia on October 21, 2024, amidst hopes that negotiating countries can agree on a path forward to safeguarding the planet.

   The 16th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on the Biological Diversity of the United Nations is considered the most important event in recent times to conserve biodiversity. The summit was held in Cali, the third largest city of the South American nation, and hosted some 15,000 attendees, including several heads of State, ministers and over 1,000 international journalists.

   COP16’s roadmap is the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework (GBF), a landmark plan to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity for 2030, adopted at COP15 in Canada.

    The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) describes biodiversity as “the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, including....