Groundhog Day at the 2024 United Nations biodiversity conference: What COP 16 can teach us for reforming environmental summits

With 23,000 registered participants and unprecedented media attention, the 16th conference of the parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia, was the largest in the 32-year history of these biannual meetings. In terms of successes, the Cali conference established a new subsidiary body to protect concerns of indigenous communities and local populations as defenders of nature, along with a new voluntary mechanism on benefit-sharing. The Cali COP may also be remembered for its civil society zone which turned into a vibrant platform of social and cultural encounters. On a more critical note though, negotiations in Cali shared the fate of the climate COP in Baku just two weeks later and, arguably, of inflated environmental summits in general. They were slowed down by typical bargaining strategies and stalemates and failed to address crucial implementation, financing and review gaps. While the conference was suspended unceremoniously on November 2, 2024, the much more concise resumed sessions in December 2024 and February 2025 achieved crucial breakthroughs on these matters. A lesson learned from these turnarounds is to complement larger COPs more regularly with smaller and solution-oriented meetings with decision-making power – instead of using such formats only for firefighting. Moreover, to avoid exaggerated greenwashing and lobbying like in Cali, future COPs should exhibit a more equitable representation of non-governmental actors and benefit from a more careful selection process of conference venues. • Agreement on new subsidiary body to integrate concerns of indigenous communities • Strong increase in business representation, lobbying and greenwashing • Considerable unfinished business on implementation and financing • Instead breakthroughs on these matters in much more concise resumed COP sessions • Reform efforts should consider such smaller sessions more regularly, not just for firefighting Short Abstract.The commentary critically revisits outcomes of the 2024 UN biodiversity conference (COP16) and its resumed session in Rome in February 2025 against recurring challenges of inflated environmental summits and COP reform calls. The Cali conference established a new subsidiary body to protect concerns of indigenous and local communities as defenders of nature, along with a voluntary mechanism on benefit-sharing. However, Cali negotiations also shared the fate of other large summits in environmental diplomacy today. They were slowed down by typical bargaining strategies and stalemates and failed to address crucial implementation, financing and review gaps.To break this cycle, future COPs should be complemented more regularly by smaller targeted meetings with decision-making power – as breakthroughs on monitoring and financing at the more concise resumed session of COP16 in Rome suggest. To avoid exaggerated greenwashing and lobbying like in Cali, they should also imply more equitable representation of non-governmental actors.