Biodiversity: Pressure grows for deal to save nature

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A global agreement to reverse the loss of nature and halt extinctions is inching closer, as talks in Geneva enter their final day.

Ahead of a high-level summit in China later this year, international negotiators are working on the text of a UN framework to safeguard nature.

Observers have slammed the pace of negotiations and are pressing for a stronger ambition.

Over financing the plans is one of the divisions.

The head of international advocacy at WWF-UK said that the science is clear and that we need to take action now.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are both related issues. It is actually the future of the planet and its people that is at stake.

Image source, Getty Images

The final version of the draft UN Convention on Biological Diversity will be negotiated in China at the Cop15 summit, which is expected to take place at the end of August.

The outcome will decide how the world will address the challenges of reducing the extinction risk threatening more than one million species, protecting 30% of land and sea and eliminating billions of dollars of government subsidies.

Over the past two weeks, talks have been taking place in Switzerland.

After the first week, observers hit out at what they saw as aglacial rate of progress, but momentum has gathered during the final days.

The aim of the draft text is to increase finance to at least US $200 billion a year by 2030.

Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, a Ghanaian academic who has played a key role in international efforts to protect biodiversity, told the news agency thatResource Mobilization at this meeting has become a tricky issue.

Image source, Russ Mittermeier

The aim is to direct, reallocate, reform or eliminate harmful incentives for biodiversity on a scale of at least US $500 billion per year.

The Paris climate agreement is seen as the equivalent of the Global Biodiversity Framework. We rely on a delicate web of life on Earth to provide us with food, clean air and water.

The goal is to turn 30% of Earth's lands and seas into protected areas by the year 2030. At least 30% of the planet needs to be saved to achieve climate and biodiversity goals, according to a recent UN climate report.

Ensuring that a shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled by 2050 is one of the goals.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the convention's executive secretary, told reporters at the start that the convention's goal was to bend the curve on biodiversity loss and build a shared future to live in harmony with nature.

Scientists have warned about threats to nature caused by human actions, such as chopping down forests and turning natural land over to farming.

Up to one million species are at risk of extinction due to nature's decline, according to a landmark assessment.

The Cop15 conference is expected to take place almost two years later than originally planned due to delays caused by the Covid pandemic.

Over the course of this decade, the world has no targets for reversing the loss of nature.