More than 190 States reached this Monday in Montreal, Canada, a historic agreement to prevent the destruction of biodiversity and its resources, essential for humanity.
At the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), countries agreed on a roadmap aimed, in particular, at protecting 30% of the planet by 2030 and releasing 30 billion dollars (about 28 billion euros) annually. conservation aid to developing countries.
After four years of difficult negotiations, 10 days and a night of diplomatic marathon, more than 190 states reached an agreement under the aegis of China, which is chairing COP15, despite opposition from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This “peace pact with nature” called the “Kunming-Montreal agreement” aims to protect lands, oceans and species from pollution, degradation and the climate crisis.
“The agreement has been adopted,” said Huang Runqiu, Chinese president of COP15, during a plenary session organized in the middle of the night.
“Together we have taken a historic step,” said Steven Guilbeault, Environment Minister of Canada, the host country of the summit.
The creation of protected areas in more than 30% of the planet, the best known of the 20 measures, has been presented as the equivalent, for biodiversity, of the Paris objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To date, 17% of the land and 8% of the seas are protected.
But the text also gives guarantees to indigenous peoples, guardians of 80% of the biodiversity that remains on Earth, proposes restoring 30% of degraded lands and even halving the risk linked to pesticides.
In an attempt to solve the perennial financial problem between North and South, China is also proposing to achieve “at least $20 billion” in annual international aid for biodiversity by 2025 and “at least $30 billion by 2030.”
Believing that humanity has become a “mass extinction weapon”, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, urged the parties to conclude a “peace pact with nature”.
Source: TSF
