Historic agreement reached at UN conference to protect lands and oceans

Montreal: Negotiators have reached a historic deal at a UN biodiversity conference that would represent the most significant effort to protect the world’s lands and oceans and provide critical financing to save biodiversity in the developing world.

The global framework comes a day before the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, is set to end in Montreal. China, which holds the presidency at this conference, released a new draft earlier on Monday that gave the sometimes contentious talks much-needed momentum.

Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a video address at the opening of the high level segment at the COP15 biodiversity conference last Thursday.Credit: The Canadian Press via AP

The most significant part of the agreement on Monday (Montreal time) is a commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030. At present, 17 per cent of terrestrial and 10 per cent of marine areas are protected.

“There has never been a conservation goal globally at this scale,” Brian O’Donnell, the director of the conservation group Campaign for Nature, told reporters. “This puts us within a chance of safeguarding biodiversity from collapse ... We’re now within the range that scientists think can make a marked difference in biodiversity.”

The draft also calls for raising $US200 billion ($298 billion) by 2030 for biodiversity from a range of sources and working to phase out or reform subsidies that could provide another $US500 billion for nature. As part of the financing package, the framework calls for increasing to at least $US20 billion annually by 2025 the money that goes to poor countries — or about double what is currently provided. That number would increase to $US30 billion each year by 2030.

Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek hailed the deal, stating that “we can be proud” that Australia led the way in the negotiations.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said Australians can feel proud of their country’s role in the negotiations.Credit: James Brickwood

“This is a big step towards achieving a nature positive planet,” Plibersek said.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted. Others didn’t either. But with a bit of cooperation, compromise and common sense, we have achieved a lot for the world.

“We secured high ambition on restoring degraded land, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems. We successfully advocated for placing the rights and interests of First Nations peoples at the forefront of nature conservation.”

Some advocates wanted tougher language around subsidies that make food and fuel so cheap in many parts of the world. The document only calls for identifying subsidies by 2025 that can be reformed or phased out and working to reduce them by 2030.

‘This puts us within a chance of safeguarding biodiversity from collapse ... We’re now within the range that scientists think can make a marked difference in biodiversity.’

Brian O’Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature

“The new text is a mixed bag,” Andrew Deutz, director of global policy, institutions and conservation finance for The Nature Conservancy, said. “It contains some strong signals on finance and biodiversity, but it fails to advance beyond the targets of 10 years ago in terms of addressing drivers of biodiversity loss in productive sectors like agriculture, fisheries, and infrastructure and thus still risks being fully transformational.”

The ministers and government officials from about 190 countries have mostly agreed that protecting biodiversity has to be a priority, with many comparing those efforts to climate talks that wrapped up last month in Egypt.

Climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world’s biodiversity, with one estimate in 2019 warning that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades – a rate of loss 1000 times greater than expected. Humans use about 50,000 wild species routinely, and one out of five people of the world’s 8 billion population depend on those species for food and income, the report said.

But they have struggled for nearly two weeks to agree on what that protection looks like and who will pay for it.

The financing has been among the most contentions issues, with delegates from 70 African, South American and Asian countries walking out of negotiations Wednesday. They returned several hours later.

Brazil, speaking for developing countries during the week, said in a statement that a new funding mechanism dedicated to biodiversity should be established and that developed countries provide $US100 billion annually in financial grants to emerging economies until 2030.

“All the elements are in there for a balance of unhappiness which is the secret to achieving agreement in UN bodies,” Pierre du Plessis, a negotiator from Namibia who is helping coordinate the African group, told The Associated Press. “Everyone got a bit of what they wanted, not necessarily everything they wanted. Let’s see if there is a spirit of unity.”

Others praised the fact the document recognises the rights of Indigenous communities. In past biodiversity documents, indigenous rights were often ignored and they rarely were part of the larger discussions other than a reference to their traditional knowledge. The framework would reaffirm the rights of Indigenous peoples and ensure they have a voice in any decision-making.

“It’s important for the rights of Indigenous peoples to be there, and while it’s not the exact wording of that proposal in the beginning, we feel that it is a good compromise and that it addresses the concerns that we have,” Jennifer Corpuz, a representative of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity said. “We believe that it’s a good basis for us to be able to implement policy at the national level.”

But the Wildlife Conservation Society and other environmental groups were concerned that the draft puts off until 2050 a goal of preventing the extinction of species, preserving the integrity of ecosystems and maintaining the genetic diversity within populations. They fear that timeline is not ambitions enough.

AP, with Mike Foley

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