High-stakes biodiversity negotiations are starting on Wednesday (Dec 7) in Canada, touted as the “last best chance” to save Earth’s species and ecosystems from humanity and the irreversible destruction it’s causing.
At the beginning of the talks that will hammer out a 10-year framework to save the planet’s forests, oceans, and species, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that “with our bottomless appetite for unchecked and unequal economic growth, humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction.”
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“This conference is our chance to stop this orgy of destruction,” he added.
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The meeting, officially known as COP15 will last from December 7-19 and comes after two years of Covid-related delay and recent several days long pre-negotiations that saw very little progress on key issues.
Hopes from the two-week UN summit includes a deal that ensures that future generation has more “nature” by the end of this decade than Earth has now.
Vanishing at a rate not seen in 10 million years, currently, more than one billion species, especially insects are facing the threat of extinction. Additionally, as per the 2022 UN Global Land Outlook assessment, around 40 per cent of the planet’s land is considered degraded.
Draft targets as per AFP include a 10-year framework with the pledge to protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and seas by 2030.
Any deal reached during the summit will have to be agreed upon by all 196 governments under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
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However, funding remains a contentious issue, with developing nations demanding increased funding for conservation.
Earlier this year a group of nations called for wealthy nations to offer $100 billion annually for biodiversity, with the contribution rising to $700 billion a year by 2020. Some countries are also backing a separate funding mechanism, a move resisted by wealthy nations.
The summit has been labelled as “probably the last best chance for governments to turn things around for nature, and to rescue our precious life support system,” by the head of international Advocacy at WWF, Bernadette Fischler Hooper.
(With inputs from agencies)
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