It's all about money

Species conservation summit in Colombia has stalled

Greenpeace draws attention to concerns with a projection in Vienna(Bild: Mitja Kobal)

The hot phase of the biodiversity summit in Colombia has begun these days. The ministers have been on site since Tuesday and have taken over the helm. As is so often the case, it is all about money and the financing of nature conservation measures. Climate activists are putting pressure on politicians.

"COP16 is the place to finally make progress in global species conservation. But at the moment the delegates are getting lost in the details. Meanwhile, the industrial lobby is propagating false solutions and thus preventing effective species protection. For the biodiversity conference to be a success, the ministers must put enough money on the table and give indigenous peoples and local communities direct access to these funds. The climate and species protection crisis can only be solved together," says Ursula Bittner, species protection expert at Greenpeace.

It's all about the money
The negotiations in Colombia have recently stalled over questions of financing. Greenpeace is calling for the funding gap in nature conservation to be urgently closed and for negotiators not to be distracted by false solutions such as biodiversity offsets. In addition, direct access to funding must be created for indigenous peoples and local communities.

Greenpeace species conservation expert Ursula Bittner(Bild: Greenpeace)

Time is of the essence
The talks in Cali will continue until November 1. This means that the signatory states still have four days to make important decisions. In addition to the necessary pledges of sufficient financial resources, the Parties must adapt their national biodiversity strategies and measures in order to fulfill their obligations to protect nature. In Austria, these measures urgently need to be firmly anchored in the new government's program, Greenpeace says.

Gewessler wants to "get down to business"(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Austria's current Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler promises to put pressure on her colleagues. "In Colombia, it's now time to get down to business. Targets are only good if you can also check whether they are being achieved. There is a sensible compromise on financing from Montreal. We should implement this instead of starting all over again," says Gewessler.