Update from COP16: Signs that Latin America is stepping up on climate and nature leadership

Rainforest canopy
Today, over 70 global leaders expressed strong support for Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as they work together to tackle climate change, protect nature, and transform food systems.

As hosts of the COP16 Biodiversity summit and the upcoming COP30 Climate, Colombia and Brazil are showing signs of leadership on how the crises of biodiversity loss and climate change are closely linked and must be tackled together. An open letter from over 70 global leaders – representing business, finance, civil society, Indigenous Peoples and youth – calls on President Petro of Colombia and President Lula of Brazil, to drive ‘one year of united action on climate, nature and food.’

The letter from these leaders asserts that, “Colombia and Brazil can forge a Latin American partnership that will guide the world by demonstrating the interconnectedness of climate and nature.”

This endorsement comes during a crucial phase at the ongoing CoP16, where nations are attempting to come to agreements over how best to operationalise the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Signatories of this call to action include influential environmentalists Christiana Figueres, Mary Robinson, Johan Rockström, and crucially Indigenous leaders Juan Carlos Jintiach and Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim. Big companies with high impacts on nature, such as Natura, Danone, and Nestlé, as well as financial organisations such as Legal & General Group plc, PRI, and IIGCC, are also backing the initiative, alongside civil society groups.

The letter outlines three main priorities for the coming year of collective action:

 

  1. Strengthen national strategies by aligning climate plans with biodiversity and food security goals. This approach aims to create benefits for society, nature, and food security, with policies to end deforestation and strengthen ocean protection by 2030.
  2. Boost investment for nature and food system transformation by increasing financial flows. This should include tripling biodiversity finance by 2030 and prioritising direct access to finance for farmers, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities. Hopefully at COP this week divisions on financing the GBF can be overcome!
  3. Ensure inclusive decision-making by bringing farmers, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities to the forefront of decision making, policy discussions and monitoring processes. Their knowledge and leadership are absolutely critical to protecting and restoring biodiversity.

At a high-level event in Cali, Sônia Guajajara, Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples, and Nohora Quintero, Colombia’s Ambassador, also welcomed the broad support and stressed the importance of advancing both climate and nature action in synergy.

In tandem, the decision text on the need for synergies between these issues is improving and there have been some important related announcements at COP16, including growing support for a Tropical Forests Forever Facility and Brazil’s renewed commitment to restore 12 million hectares of native ecosystems by 2030.

Leadership by Latin America on climate and nature is vital as the region holds much of the world’s biodiversity and land-based carbon, making it key to the global fight against biodiversity loss and climate change. However, such leadership is undermined by the much less positive news that a key paragraph warning about the dangers to biodiversity of scaling bioenergy crops was dropped from the negotiated text; while the UK, EU and other nations supported its inclusion, Brazil rejected it, and were backed by China and Argentina…

Read the open letter: Cali to Belém