UN biodiversity summit opens in Colombia

World's largest nature conference kicks off in Colombia, urging urgent action to combat biodiversity loss.

The world's biggest nature protection conference opened in Colombia on Monday with calls for urgent action and financing to reverse humankind's rapacious destruction of biodiversity.

With about a million known species worldwide believed to be under threat of extinction, Colombian Environment Minister and COP16 president Susana Muhamad warned delegates: "The planet doesn't have time to lose."

"We all agree that we are underfunded for this mission, we all agree that we need further sources of funding," the minister told delegates from nearly 200 countries as she opened the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

"We now, all together, must deliver... Cali 2024 could be a light in this very dark world," she said, referring to the city hosting the event. About 15,000 delegates, including more than 100 government ministers and a dozen heads of state have been accredited for the largest-ever biodiversity COP, which will run until November 1.

Themed "Peace with Nature," it has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to ensure 23 UN targets agreed at COP15 two years ago can be met by 2030 to "halt and reverse" the loss of nature