PARIS – Turkey has said it cannot host a major United Nations biodiversity meeting in 2024 as it reels from a series of devastating earthquakes in 2023, according to the UN body that oversees the talks.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) said the Turkish government had decided to withdraw from presiding over the COP16 meeting “due to a force majeure situation created by the three destructive earthquakes that occurred in February 2023”.
The COP16 talks will seek to build on a historic agreement reached at the 2022 talks aimed at saving the earth’s lands, oceans and species from pollution, degradation and the climate crisis.
That deal, hailed as “a peace pact with nature” and akin to the landmark Paris climate deal, was reached by the more than 190 countries that are part of the UN biodiversity process.
In a letter published on its website on Monday, the CBD said Turkey had “expressed its regrets” about the decision to step down from leadership of the talks, which are currently slated to be held from Oct 21 to Nov 1 in 2024.
It said it would solicit offers from other countries to step in.
The 2022 deal, including pledges to secure 30 per cent of the planet as a protected zone by 2030, came about after four years of sometimes fraught negotiations hampered by the pandemic.
Host country China ultimately presided over the final talks in Canada. AFP
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