COP16 | Emergency Special Session on Coral Reefs

Details

Accessibility: In Person

Location: Large Blue Zone Official COP16 Side Event Room (Subnational & LocaL Governments Room, Plaza One)

Time: 16:30 – 17:50 COT

COP16 | Emergency Special Session on Coral Reefs

30 October 2024

Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

In response to the ongoing fourth global coral bleaching event, now the most extensive on historical record affecting more than 75% of coral reefs worldwide, a Special Emergency Session on Coral Reefs will be convened within the margins of CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia.

Convened by H.E. Ambassador Peter Thomson, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean; the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI); and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR), representatives of coral states, leaders in coral reef action and globally renowned scientists will take the stage during this COP16 Emergency Special Session on Coral Reefs to:

• Present the most up-to-date scientific analysis regarding the state of coral reefs and the fourth mass global bleaching event;
• Deliver clear action points, integrated strategies and scalable resilience initiatives offering the best chances of thwarting functional extinction, including efforts to protect climate refugia; and
• Outline critical paths for public and private leaders to scale up transformative conservation action to avert functional extinction.