AFP – Turkiye said it cannot host a major United Nations (UN) biodiversity meeting in 2024 as it reels from a series of devastating earthquakes this year, according to the UN body that oversees the talks.
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) said the Turkish government decided to withdraw from presiding over the Conference of the Parties (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 talks last year aimed at saving 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 over 190 countries that are part of the UN biodiversity process.
In a letter published on its website this week, the CBD said Turkiye expressed its regrets about the decision to step down from leadership of the talks.
