The message of unity from Eder and Galán for COP 16

The National Government and the Mayor’s Office of Cali advance in the organization of COP 16

The National Government and local and departmental authorities held a first meeting this Thursday to organize COP16 on Biodiversity, which will take place in October in the city of Cali.

“We have jointly agreed on the work process and above all the structure to carry this out,” explained the Minister of the Environment, Susana Muhammad, after meeting with the mayor of Cali, Alejandro Éder, and the governor of the department of Valle del Cauca, Dilian Francisca Toro.

This week, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, announced that the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP16), which will be held between October 21 and November 1 of this year, will be held in Cali, the third city ​​of Colombia, located in the Pacific region.

“We are leaning toward the most biodiverse region of Colombia, the Colombian Pacific,” the head of state explained on Monday when arguing the decision that “the headquarters of COP 16 will be Cali,” a city known as the “branch of heaven.”

National, departmental and local governments have met to put themselves “in synergy” on the potential of holding this important world summit in Cali, but also so that the organizers know “the requirements of the United Nations” in terms of logistics and budget arrangements. , explained the minister.

In this way, Colombia has three months to pay the two million dollars established to finance the convention secretariat, a payment that the Government wants to “close as soon as possible”, after losing another major international event such as the Pan American Games of 2027 that were going to be held in Barranquilla, precisely due to a delay in payments.

“The financing is guaranteed by the national government,” Muhammad reassured, while the mayor of Cali said that the Mayor’s Office and the Government will each provide 5,000 million pesos (about 1.2 million dollars).

“More than 12,000 people from more than 100 countries are going to visit our city and we want them to see it with different eyes,” said Eder, who recalled that Cali is “a city that has suffered a lot in recent years, but this COP gives us a new hope”.