Roughly 190 countries approved a sweeping United Nations agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet's land and oceans by the year 2030.
The agreement comes at a time when the world's population is decreasing at an unprecedented rate. A million plants and animals are at risk of extinction according to scientists.
The director of the Campaign for Nature said that the agreement was a huge moment for nature. We haven't seen anything like this before.
The deal has a number of targets. 30x30 is a measure that protects broad areas of land and sea. The remaining 70 percent of the planet must be managed to avoid losing areas of high importance to the environment.
The question is whether the targets will be met.
According to the body that oversees the Convention on Biological Diversity, the previous 10-year agreement failed to achieve a single target at the global level. Negotiating teams said they had learned from their mistakes and that the new pact included provisions to make targets measurable.
Basile van Havre, a Canadian who was a co-chairman of the negotiations, said that it was now possible to have a report card. He said that money, monitoring and targets would make the difference.
The United States could not participate in the talks because it is not a party to the convention on biological diversity. Republicans have prevented its passage. The Holy See isn't part of the treaty.
People talk about biodiversity. The 15th conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is currently being held in Montreal. A new 10-year agreement is the goal of the gathering.
A small nation is making diplomatic moves. The nation of Vanuatu has a population of over 300,000 people. The president wants the International Court of Justice to weigh in on whether nations are legally bound to protect themselves against climate risks.
There is a transition to renewable energy. According to the International Energy Agency, there will be double the amount of renewable power in the world in the next five years. Coal is expected to be the biggest source of electricity generation by early 2025, according to the agency.
The Saudi plan. Despite the scientific consensus that the world must move away from fossil fuels to avoid the worst consequences of global warming, Saudi Arabia is using lobbying, research funding and diplomatic activity to keep oil at the center of the world economy.
Thirty percent of lands and waters will be protected by the Biden administration.
Humans are behind each and every cause of biodiversity loss. Agriculture is the largest driver on land. It's being overfished at sea. Climate change is one of the factors.
These drivers are addressed by the agreement. Target 17 commits to reducing the risk from pesticides and highly toxic chemicals by at least half while also addressing the issue offertilizer run off.
The groups wanted stronger measures related to extinctions.
Anne Larigauderie regretted that omission but praised the agreement as ambitious and quantified.
It is a compromise but it is not a bad one.
There were disagreements over how to balance the deal's ambition with the ability of countries to pay for it. Canada hosted the talks, which were led by China.
The EU wanted more aggressive targets. Indonesia wanted to use nature in a different way.
Dozens of countries from Latin American, Africa and South East Asia walked out of a meeting on Wednesday because they weren't being heard.
The global south has an outsize amount of the world's flora and fauna. These nations don't have the financial resources needed to reform harmful agriculture, protect threatened species, and restore ecosystems.
The final approval was held up until the early hours of Monday. Several African countries spoke out in protest when the president of the talks went ahead with his plans.
The deal reached on Monday would double the amount of financing from all sources to $200 billion a year. Up to $30 billion per year is earmarked to go to developing countries from developed ones. Financial commitments are not binding.
Money should not be viewed as charity according to representatives of developing countries.
The former colonial powers have grown rich by exploiting natural resources all over the world according to Joseph Onoja. He said that they came around and stole from us.
Now that countries of the global south are trying to use natural resources for their own development they are being told to preserve them for the sake of global conservativism.
He believes in protecting nature. He wants the global north to be held to account.
A study by the Paulson Institute found that it would take $700 billion a year to reverse the decline in the number of animals.
A major source of funding could come from reallocating the hundreds of billions of dollars currently spent on subsidies that harm nature. The world will reduce those by at least $500 billion a year by the year 2030.
About 17 percent of the planet's land and 8 percent of its oceans are protected. The 30x30 idea has caused a point of contention. Some feared that the measure could cause communities to be displaced from their land, while others advocated the target as a way to secure Indigenous land rights.
The inclusion of language about Indigenous rights in the agreement was celebrated by a representative of the International Indigenous Forum on biodiversity. She said it was "breaking new ground."
Maisa Corradi, the environment minister and a climate scientist, said she hadn't grasped the full extent of the biodiversity crisis until a major intergovernmental report on the topic was published in 2019. She plans to bring other ministers with her when she returns home. She said it was important to press ahead because of the food security issues caused by the Russian invasion of Ukranian.
There will be no food on the planet, that's for sure.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
