COP16: key takeaways from the final negotiations in Rome in 2025

In our previous COP16 blog post, we covered the initial key takeaways from the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (“COP16”) which took place in Colombia from 21 October to 2 November 2024 but closed before final decisions could be reached on a number of issues including finance. 

COP16 reconvened in Rome on 25-27 February 2025 to continue discussions on how to finance the Global Biodiversity Framework (“GBF”) goals and whether a new fund should be established to support financing. 

Ultimately countries agreed to a new strategy for mobilising US$200 billion a year by 2030 to help countries halt the decline of nature, address biodiversity loss, and achieve the targets of the GBF.

Background

At COP15 in 2022, an agreement was reached to increase finance for nature protection and restoration to US$200 billion annually by 2030, with wealthy nations to contribute US$30 billion each year (see our previous blog post for an overview of the GBF and COP15). However, by October 2024, only US$396 million from 12 countries had been pledged to the fund. 

One of the key aims of COP16 was for nations to devise a plan for reaching this funding goal. At the initial COP16 negotiations in 2024, nations failed to decide on a plan, so parties agreed to reconvene this year to decide on a way forward.

What was agreed this year?

After intense negotiations in Rome, progress was made in several respects:

• Resource mobilisation:  A key question was how to mobilise more resources to achieve the objectives in the GBF. To this end, nations agreed on a Strategy for Resource Mobilization (“Strategy”), which sets out how countries can mobilise more financial resources from a variety of sources (e.g. public, private, development finance, etc.) to meet the 2030 biodiversity funding target, and how nations can tackle financial flows that cause harm to biodiversity, such as through biodiversity-related risk disclosures by companies and the reform of subsidies. As part of the strategy, wealthy nations are urged to mobilise US$20 billion annually for developing nations by the end of 2025, and this will subsequently increase to US$30 billion annually by 2030. The strategy also includes a requirement for Ministers of Environment and Finance from wealthy and developing nations to meet to improve the integration of biodiversity into economic and budgetary policies.
• Financial mechanism: A key demand of developing countries was for a new institutional structure to be set up to manage financial flows for developing countries. As part of the Strategy, nations also agreed to set up a permanent financial mechanism and will assess what the most appropriate structure is over the next few years (e.g. the Global Environment Facility, or the Cali Fund, or others). In the event that a new funding entity is required, nations agreed that it will need to be fully operational by COP19, in order to guarantee effective support beyond 2030. An analysis of the obstacles to biodiversity funding will also be carried out.
• Monitoring: Nations also agreed to enhance the monitoring framework for the GBF. An agreement was reached on how the indicators would be measured and used when reporting national progress, ensuring all nations track progress in a way that can be easily understood by national policymakers and which allows data to be aggregated at a global level, thus providing a clear picture of how global implementation of the GBF is tracking. 

What else happened?

On 25 February 2025, the Cali Fund (agreed at COP16 last year) was launched.

Companies that make commercial use or benefit from digital sequence information on genetic resources are now expected to contribute a portion of their revenue or profits to the fund. 

Contributions will be used to support the implementation of the GBF with at least 50% of contributed funds being allocated to the self-identified needs of indigenous peoples and local communities, acknowledging their role as custodians of biodiversity.

What happens next?

Additional meetings are planned to discuss boosting the effectiveness of global biodiversity finance before the next formal gathering at COP17, which is scheduled to take place in Yerevan, Armenia in 2026. 

COP30 in Belém, Brazil in November 2025 – the climate COP - is also expected to cover how climate and biodiversity issues are linked. 

Both COPs will serve as crucial checkpoints to assess progress against the financial commitments made in Rome and to test whether commitments in the Strategy have translated into action.

For more information on nature and biodiversity, see our biodiversity materials.