The UN drafted on Sunday a proposal to establish a global fund for sharing some of the multi-trillion dollar revenues derived from products that leverage the use of the DNA sequences of plants, animals, and microbes, known as digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI).

The proposal comes in the lead-up to the final talks within the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) DSI intergovernmental negotiating group, set to take place from Aug. 12-16 in Montreal, Canada, with the aim of laying the foundations for upcoming discussions at the COP16 UN biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia.

The document aims to promote the fair sharing of scientific knowledge and revenues generated from products such as drugs, cosmetics, and agricultural biotechnology that have been developed by reading and understanding genetic resources.

The creation of a new fund will support countries and communities that protect biodiversity globally, particularly Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and enhance worldwide capacity to generate and leverage DSI.

According to the text, contributions to the fund should be proportionate and reasonable to prevent businesses or consumers from being burdened with excessive costs.

“While all producers of products developed through the use of DSI or all companies operating in sectors that are highly dependent on DSI would be encouraged to contribute, the main focus would be on large and transnational producers or companies,” the UN said.

“The scale of the contributions to the fund should take into account the overall intended scale of the fund, the number of contributors, the degree to which revenue generated is dependent on the use of DSI, and the potential impact of the contribution on business activity and consumers.”

During the talks, the UN working group will also discuss how to share non-monetary benefits of DSI-related science, including capacity building, technology transfer, research results, and joint research partnerships.

BENEFIT SHARING

The creation of a multilateral mechanism was pledged by parties at the COP 15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal in Dec. 2022, as part of the deal that also included the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

However, as CBD’s acting executive secretary, David Cooper, pointed out in a statement, companies have so far shared little of the profits generated from DSI-related products.

Co-chairs of the mechanism’s negotiation group, Mphatso Kalemba and William Lockhart, said sectors that depend most on DNA sequences – which range from pharmaceutical to cosmetics – generate from $1 trillion to a few trillion dollars annually.

Allocating just 0.1% of $1 trillion of those revenues would yield $1 billion for the GBF fund, established with the aim of scaling up financing for the implementation of the GBF, they said.

“The world has been presented with an opportunity to mobilise additional resources for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use while enhancing benefits from the use of DSI through this mechanism and its fund,” Kalemba said.

“I hope that delegates will work hard in Montreal to unpack that solution to the world.”

The GBF has targeted increasing finance for nature to $200 bln annually by 2030 to help bridge the estimated $700 bln financing gap for biodiversity.

To meet the goal, the GBF encouraged parties to substantially and progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources “in an effective, timely, and easily accessible manner, including domestic, international, public, and private resources”.

By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com

*** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter ***