The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was supposed to be a turning point. Signed in 2022, it set a series of targets for halting the destruction of nature. The 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference, COP16 in Cali, Colombia, was the first real test of whether those targets would actually be met. The results, after 11 days of talks that ran from October 21 to November 1, were mixed. A partial collapse of negotiations marked the close. That failure tells us something about the forces at work.
The core of the framework is a monitoring mechanism. Countries are supposed to track their progress toward conservation goals. At COP16, the task was to evaluate that progress. Representatives from around the world gathered in Cali to do it. But the conference was also about money. The framework recognizes that developing countries need financial support to implement conservation targets. They are the ones sitting on much of the world’s remaining biodiversity. They are also the ones struggling to balance economic development with environmental conservation. The conference aimed to agree on a roadmap for providing that financial support. It did not fully succeed.
The partial collapse of the negotiations was not a total breakdown. It was a fracture. It showed the deep tension between the nations that have already industrialized and those still trying to. Developing countries came to Cali expecting a clear commitment. They wanted to see a concrete plan for how the promised funds would flow. Instead, they got a reminder of how difficult these agreements are to reach. The Kunming-Montreal Framework is a good document. It is full of ambitious language. But ambition without a checkbook is just a wish.
Look at the host city. Cali, Colombia, is in a country that is one of the most biodiverse on the planet. Colombia has rainforests, mountains, coasts. It has species found nowhere else. It also has poverty and pressure to develop land for agriculture, mining, and oil. The choice of Cali as the host was symbolic. It placed the conference directly in the reality that the framework is meant to address. The delegates were negotiating in a city that lives the tension every day. That did not make the talks easier. It may have made them more honest.
The conference ran for 11 days. That is a long time for a meeting. It is a short time to bridge the gap between the wealthy nations that hold the money and the developing nations that hold the biodiversity. The framework says financial support is important. The conference was supposed to be the critical step toward making that a reality. The partial collapse suggests that step is still incomplete. The roadmap remains a sketch.
Where does this leave the Kunming-Montreal framework? It leaves it intact but wobbling. The monitoring mechanism exists. The targets are still on paper. But the machinery for funding them is not yet built. Without that machinery, the targets are just numbers. The developing countries will continue to face the same choice: protect nature or feed people. They cannot do both without help. The conference in Cali did not solve that. It highlighted it.
The next conference will have to pick up the pieces. The partial collapse was a warning. It said that the goodwill of 2022 is not enough. The hard work of actually transferring resources, of setting priorities, of making nations pay for what they ask other nations to protect, remains undone. The biodiversity crisis does not wait for negotiations. Species go extinct while diplomats argue over commas. COP16 did not stop that. It only showed how far the world still has to go.
