Published October 21, 2024
By Bruna de Almeida Campos, Senior Campaigner, Offshore Oil & Gas at the Center for International Environmental Law.
As world leaders gather from October 21 to November 1 in Cali, Colombia, for the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16), governments have an opportunity to confront fossil fuels’ devastating impact on ecosystems, communities, and the climate.
With biodiversity under threat from climate change, pollution, and habitat loss, the conference’s theme —“Make Peace with Nature” — is a rallying call for governments to act decisively. Yet, achieving peace with nature will remain elusive until governments confront the elephant in the room: oil and gas, a major driver of the triple planetary crisis — climate change, biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution.
As host, Colombia — a supporter of the Fossil Fuels Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT) — has a unique role in getting governments to recognize the need for action against oil and gas in these negotiations.
Why Offshore Oil and Gas Endangers Biodiversity
More than 30 percent of oil and gas activity takes place offshore, and this is growing with the promises of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and expansion into deeper waters.
The offshore oil and gas industry contributes to global warming, degrades marine biodiversity, introduces toxic pollutants into the marine environment, and threatens the rights and livelihoods of coastal communities and Indigenous Peoples.
Marine biodiversity plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy planet, from supporting fisheries and regulating climate to safeguarding cultural heritage and water quality. However, offshore oil and gas activities are undermining these ecosystems at every stage — exploration, production, transportation, and decommissioning.
Seismic surveys during exploration are not only killing whales and dolphins in large numbers but are also impacting microorganisms important to supporting the food web. During production, oil spills occur regularly, either during drilling or when offloading to a transport vessel. And let’s not forget that the risk of blowouts is high, especially the deeper the activity takes place.
Often forgotten is the increase in vessel traffic in a given area to transport oil and gas, especially problematic with the buildout of LNG terminals in and close to areas of high biodiversity importance. Also, companies often abandon their infrastructure once a well is sufficiently exploited, paving the way for more oil spills and enabling invasive species such as the sun corals.
Offshore Oil and Gas: Absent from the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)
Despite its outsized impact on biodiversity, offshore oil and gas activities remain largely absent from global biodiversity discussions. As the legal framework guiding efforts to protect biodiversity, the CBD must prioritize phasing out fossil fuels — particularly offshore activities — to achieve its goals.
Governments at COP16 will review actions governments are taking in their strategies and plans to make progress toward biodiversity targets, but without addressing fossil fuels, critical goals will remain out of reach. The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious targets to halt biodiversity loss, including tackling climate change, and therefore, offshore oil and gas operations need to be addressed. Targets 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and 18 — which relate to habitat conservation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable use — are particularly at risk of failure without decisive action to halt offshore oil and gas activities.
Colombia’s leadership at COP16 provides a chance to change that. The country has already committed to fossil fuel phaseout through its support of the FFNPT. Now, it has the opportunity to initiate high-level discussions and champion efforts to bring offshore oil and gas into the spotlight of CBD negotiations, urging other nations to align biodiversity policies with climate goals.
What COP16 Can Achieve: Prioritizing Fossil Fuel Phaseout
At COP16, governments have the opportunity to mainstream biodiversity across sectors, meaning that decisions on spatial plans, as well as licenses and permits for oil and gas activities, need to fully assess their impact on biodiversity. This is particularly important in the Caribbean as governments such as Colombia, despite committing to the FFNPT, are still licensing oil and gas exploration in critical biodiversity areas. They will also have an opportunity to turn marine paper parks into real protected areas, such as Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs), by making them off-limits to oil and gas operations.
In addition, public participation — particularly by Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities — must be central to decision-making processes, especially around oil and gas activities. COP16 should be the platform where governments make the needs of Indigenous Peoples central to their decision-making.
Furthermore, as governments seek to align biodiversity and climate action (Agenda item 25) — without tackling oil and gas, these negotiations will be a talk shop. Phasing out fossil fuels will help mitigate climate impacts on biodiversity, help achieve GBF targets, and align with the Paris Agreement’s climate goals to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
A Turning Point for Biodiversity and Climate Action
The success of COP16 depends on governments taking bold steps
to confront the fossil fuel industry. Without taking action to phase out fossil fuels, the promise to “make peace with nature” will ring hollow.
COP16 is a crucial moment for governments to align biodiversity protection with climate action. Addressing the threat of oil and gas, in particular, on the oceans is not optional if we are to meet global biodiversity and climate targets. Fossil fuels are driving biodiversity loss and climate instability, and a meaningful commitment to “make peace with nature” requires phasing out oil and gas operations — starting with the oceans.
Colombia’s endorsement of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty sends a strong message: we cannot achieve a just and sustainable future while continuing to invest in fossil fuels. Now is the time for other countries to follow suit. Governments attending COP16 must go beyond rhetoric and commit to bold action: remove oil and gas from marine protected areas, integrate biodiversity into climate policies, and update their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to phase out fossil fuels.
The message is clear: the health of our oceans, ecosystems, and communities depends on what happens at COP16. The time for half-measures is over — governments must act now to chart a new course toward a fossil-free, biodiversity-rich future.
