CBD COP16: A Crucial Moment To Address Oil and Gas Threats to Biodiversity – Center for International Environmental Law

Revealed October 21, 2024

By Bruna de Almeida Campos, Senior Campaigner, Offshore Oil & Gasoline on the Heart for Worldwide Environmental Legislation. 

As world leaders collect from October 21 to November 1 in Cali, Colombia, for the sixteenth assembly of the Convention of the Events to the Conference on Organic Variety (CBD COP16), governments have a chance to confront fossil fuels’ devastating influence on ecosystems, communities, and the local weather. 

With biodiversity beneath risk from local weather change, air pollution, and habitat loss, the convention’s theme —“Make Peace with Nature” — is a rallying name for governments to behave decisively. But, reaching peace with nature will stay elusive till governments confront the elephant within the room: oil and fuel, a serious driver of the triple planetary disaster — local weather change, biodiversity loss, and poisonous air pollution.

 As host, Colombia — a supporter of the Fossil Fuels Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT) — has a novel position in getting governments to acknowledge the necessity for motion towards oil and fuel in these negotiations. 

Why Offshore Oil and Gasoline Endangers Biodiversity

Extra than 30 p.c of oil and fuel exercise takes place offshore, and that is rising with the guarantees of recent liquefied pure fuel (LNG) manufacturing and growth into deeper waters.

The offshore oil and fuel trade contributes to world warming, degrades marine biodiversity, introduces poisonous pollution into the marine setting, and threatens the rights and livelihoods of coastal communities and Indigenous Peoples. 

Marine biodiversity performs a significant position in sustaining a wholesome planet, from supporting fisheries and regulating local weather to safeguarding cultural heritage and water high quality. Nevertheless, offshore oil and fuel actions are undermining these ecosystems at each stage — exploration, manufacturing, transportation, and decommissioning. 

Seismic surveys throughout exploration aren’t solely killing whales and dolphins in giant numbers however are additionally impacting microorganisms essential to supporting the meals net. Throughout manufacturing, oil spills happen repeatedly, both throughout drilling or when offloading to a transport vessel. And let’s not overlook that the danger of blowouts is excessive, particularly the deeper the exercise takes place. 

Typically forgotten is the rise in vessel visitors in a given space to move oil and fuel, particularly problematic with the buildout of LNG terminals in and near areas of excessive biodiversity significance. Additionally, firms typically abandon their infrastructure as soon as a nicely is sufficiently exploited, paving the best way for extra oil spills and enabling invasive species such because the solar corals.

Offshore Oil and Gasoline: Absent from the World Biodiversity Framework (GBF)

Regardless of its outsized influence on biodiversity, offshore oil and fuel actions stay largely absent from world biodiversity discussions. Because the authorized framework guiding efforts to guard biodiversity, the CBD should prioritize phasing out fossil fuels — significantly offshore actions — to realize its targets.

Governments at COP16 will overview actions governments are taking of their methods and plans to make progress towards biodiversity targets, however with out addressing fossil fuels, essential targets will stay out of attain. The World Biodiversity Framework (GBF) units bold targets to halt biodiversity loss, together with tackling local weather change, and subsequently, offshore oil and fuel operations have to be addressed. Targets 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and 18 — which relate to habitat conservation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable use — are significantly susceptible to failure with out decisive motion to halt offshore oil and fuel actions. 

Colombia’s management at COP16 gives an opportunity to vary that. The nation has already dedicated to fossil gasoline phaseout by its assist of the FFNPT. Now, it has the chance to provoke high-level discussions and champion efforts to carry offshore oil and fuel into the highlight of CBD negotiations, urging different nations to align biodiversity insurance policies with local weather targets.

What COP16 Can Obtain: Prioritizing Fossil Gas Phaseout

At COP16, governments have the chance to mainstream biodiversity throughout sectors, that means that choices on spatial plans, in addition to licenses and permits for oil and fuel actions, want to completely assess their influence on biodiversity. That is significantly essential within the Caribbean as governments similar to Colombia, regardless of committing to the FFNPT, are nonetheless licensing oil and fuel exploration in essential biodiversity areas. They may even have a chance to show marine paper parks into actual protected areas, similar to Ecologically or Biologically Important Marine Areas (EBSAs), by making them off-limits to grease and fuel operations.

As well as, public participation — significantly by Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities — should be central to decision-making processes, particularly round oil and fuel actions. COP16 ought to be the platform the place governments make the wants of Indigenous Peoples central to their decision-making. 

Moreover, as governments search to align biodiversity and local weather motion (Agenda merchandise 25) — with out tackling oil and fuel, these negotiations might be a chat store. Phasing out fossil fuels will assist mitigate local weather impacts on biodiversity, assist obtain GBF targets, and align with the Paris Settlement’s local weather targets to restrict world warming to 1.5°C.

A Turning Level for Biodiversity and Local weather Motion

The success of COP16 depends upon governments taking daring steps

to confront the fossil gasoline trade. With out taking motion to section out fossil fuels, the promise to “make peace with nature” will ring hole. 

COP16 is an important second for governments to align biodiversity safety with local weather motion. Addressing the specter of oil and fuel, specifically, on the oceans will not be elective if we’re to satisfy world biodiversity and local weather targets. Fossil fuels are driving biodiversity loss and local weather instability, and a significant dedication to “make peace with nature” requires phasing out oil and fuel operations — beginning with the oceans.

Colombia’s endorsement of the Fossil Gas Non-Proliferation Treaty sends a powerful message: we can’t obtain a simply and sustainable future whereas persevering with to spend money on fossil fuels. Now’s the time for different international locations to comply with swimsuit. Governments attending COP16 should transcend rhetoric and decide to daring motion: take away oil and fuel from marine protected areas, combine biodiversity into local weather insurance policies, and replace their Nationwide Biodiversity Methods and Motion Plans (NBSAPs) to section out fossil fuels.

The message is evident: the well being of our oceans, ecosystems, and communities depends upon what occurs at COP16. The time for half-measures is over — governments should act now to chart a brand new course towards a fossil-free, biodiversity-rich future.