Developing countries are calling for an increase to $100 billion in rich countries’ annual conservation aid, currently estimated at €7-10 billion.
The goal of protecting 30% of the planet’s land and seas by 2030, announced as a key focus of the UN’s biodiversity talks, is included in the draft agreement unveiled by China’s President Summit on Sunday.
This target, the most prominent of the twenty actions to be taken to halt the destruction of nature by the end of the decade, was presented as the biodiversity equivalent of the Paris target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. To date, 17% of the land and 8% of the seas are protected.
A closed session will be held at noon with environment ministers or their designated negotiators, at which China’s Environment Minister Huang Runqiu will seek approval for what he hopes will be the final text.
The final draft comes after nearly two weeks of negotiations between 196 nations that are part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and are seeking a new agreement to stop human destruction of nature and start restoring what has already been destroyed became.
The United Nations says three quarters of the Earth’s land area has been modified by human activities and that one million species are threatened with extinction this century.
As the final hours of talks drew near, a sort of showdown had erupted between developed and developing countries over whether a new dedicated biodiversity fund was the best way to channel fresh funding for conservation.
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said on Saturday morning that both sides had come a little closer to a compromise, but had not gone far enough.
China officially chairs the COP15 and as such oversees the negotiations. However, the meeting itself has been moved to Canada due to China’s COVID-19 restrictions.
The main reason Montreal was chosen as a location is that it is home to the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
The move gave Canada more leverage in the talks, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country was clear when it agreed to host the event: China should help Canada meet a very ambitious goal.
This includes protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030, which is what most developed countries are aiming for. Minister Guilbeault warned this week that the funding requested by developing countries would only come about if an agreement was also ambitious with its ambitions.
Mr Guilbeault worked in several rooms to try to carry out the agreement. He had bilateral meetings with several ministers from developed and developing countries on Saturday.
Many saw the Montreal nature talks as an opportunity to do for conservation what the 2015 Paris climate talks did to drive action on climate change. Mr Guilbeault said it was this type of bold agreement that was needed.
“We did this in Paris, we can do it here in Montreal. The whole world is watching. We have the power to change the course of history. Let’s give nature the “Paris” moment it deserves. »
— A quote from Steven Guilbeault, Canadian Minister for the Environment
Diplomatic tensions between Canada and China ahead of COP15 have worried some observers that shared hosting duties could cause problems, but Dr. Huang and Guilbeault jointly expressed their gratitude and trust on Saturday.
Greenpeace East Asia global policy adviser Li Shuo noted their alignment in a later Twitter post.
This is interesting because China and Canada disagree on many issues these days, he said.