Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has backed calls for rich nations to allocate more money to protect the planet’s ecosystems at Cop15, as talks resumed in Montreal after a series of strikes.
More than 100 environment ministers have arrived at the biodiversity summit in Canada ahead of a weekend of intense negotiations on this decade’s UN goals to protect the natural world.
On Thursday, several countries in the Global North presented biodiversity funding pledges, including new contributions from Spain, the Netherlands and the US. Donors stressed that the money in the final agreement must go hand in hand with ambition to protect the planet, specifically the draft target of protecting 30% of the planet.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, the EU Commissioner for Environment, ruled out setting up a new biodiversity fund as part of the final deal, a key demand from some developing countries at Cop15. “It is extremely important that there is no new fund. It took us seven to eight years to negotiate the Global Environment Facility,” he said. “I think these talks about the new funds are misleading. They don’t deliver value so far.”
Lula’s new administration has written to the summit to underscore the need for more money for biodiversity, echoing his speech at Cop27 in which he pledged to ensure rich countries meet their $100 billion climate commitments to the US comply with global south.
Lula da Silva with representatives of the indigenous peoples of Brazil at the Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh last month. Photo: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty ImagesSome delegations have attempted to portray Brazil’s negotiators at Cop15 as representing outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, trying to stir up chaos after playing a leading role in Wednesday’s strikes over money and the establishment of a new biodiversity fund.
But the letter from Lula’s transition team seems to underscore support for Brazil’s negotiating team and other developing countries.
“How can the developed world recognize the magnitude of the triple planetary crisis and not respond to calls for greater ambition in biodiversity financing beyond the existing financing architecture through additional and innovative strategies and instruments?” the letter asks.
“Funding proposals put forward by developing countries to generate new and additional funds specifically dedicated to biodiversity-related initiatives must be taken seriously. Developing countries possess the overwhelming majority of the world’s biodiversity and play a key role in this agenda.”
On Thursday morning, the Cop15 President of China presented his plans for the final days of the summit, which is due to end on Monday. They said Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault will co-host talks to resolve key issues, which observers say is a sign the co-hosts are working well together despite differences between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canada’s prime minister. Justin Trudeau.
Xi called on countries via video link on Thursday to work together to promote “harmonious coexistence between people and nature.”
“An ancient Chinese proverb says: ‘All living things should prosper without harming each other, all ways of life should prosper without hindering each other.’ Let us work together to begin a new chapter in building a community of all life on Earth and creating a bright future of harmonious coexistence,” he said.
Huang Runqiu, China’s environment minister and Cop15 president, wrote to countries on Thursday to outline plans for the final days of the summit. He has brought together ministers from developed and developing countries to try to solve three key issues: targets for protection, money and the use of digital forms of biodiversity.
Li Shuo, a Greenpeace China policy adviser who is following the Montreal talks, said environment ministers should start work to resolve differences that technical negotiations have failed to resolve as soon as possible over the past three years.
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“The technical negotiators have exhausted their mandate. The ministers are now being asked by the presidency to broker deals. The ministers must now set to work. There are still far too many problems to solve. Leaving them all to the final days will mean a drawn-out endgame,” he said.
China held a meeting with heads of Cop15 delegations Wednesday after the strikes, where “violent settlement” was understood to mean money and the goals of preventing extinction, restoring nature and creating new protected areas. Negotiations resumed shortly thereafter, but the mood remains tense.
“Financial discussions are key to the success of Cop15. The truth so far is that a lack of international solidarity has stalled the negotiations,” said one negotiator.
“The European Union and other countries such as Canada and Japan are directly responsible for this situation by constantly trying to delay negotiations to avoid discussing a numerical target for resource mobilization and by refusing to engage constructively on the Basis of proposals to engage developing countries.
“These same developed countries are keen on ambitious numbers for conservation targets, but will not agree to significant numbers once we get to the discussions on funding and ODA [overseas development aid].
“Let’s hope attitude changes during the high-level segment.”
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