COP15 adopts biodiversity reversal plan to save 30% of land, water by 2030

Montreal deal also aims to provide critical financing to developing world; draft calls for raising $200 billion by 2030 for biodiversity, with a plan that could provide another $500 billion

After a delay of two years due to Covid-19, a new global agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 gets a final nod on Monday during the last day of UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada.

Adopted by 196 countries under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the agreement targets to conserve at least 30 per cent of land, freshwater and ocean globally, while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, and recognising the contributions of indigenous and traditional territories towards the target’s tally.

The historic deal signed in Montreal also aims to provide critical financing to the developing world to protect biodiversity. The draft calls for raising $200 billion by 2030 for biodiversity from a range of sources and working to phase out or reform subsidies that could provide another $500 billion for nature.

The framework calls for increasing to at least $20 billion annually by 2025, the money that goes to poor countries or about twice the current provision. That number would rise to $30 billion each year by 2030.

The deal contains more quantifiable targets such as reducing harmful subsidies given to industry by at least $500 billion per year that should make it easier to track and report progress.

The deal, which includes 23 targets in total, replaces the failed 2010 Aichi Biodiversity Targets that were intended to guide conservation through 2020.

At the close of the meeting, COP15 president Huang Runqiu said the agreement marked a “historic moment” in global efforts to save nature, calling the deal “a package we can all be proud of”.

However, the World Wide Fund for Nature warns that the agreement’s goal of reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 could be undermined if weak language in critical areas such as the protection of intact ecosystems and tackling unsustainable production and consumption is not addressed at the national level.

“Agreeing a shared global goal that will guide collective and immediate action to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 is an exceptional feat for those that have been negotiating the Global Biodiversity Framework, and a win for people and the planet. It sends a clear signal and must be the launch pad for action from governments, business and society to transition towards a nature-positive world, in support of climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals,” explains Marco Lambertini, Director General, WWF International.