News Desk
MONTREAL: Nations reached a landmark agreement to protect the environment at the United Nations Biodiversity summit, also known as COP 15, on Monday.
The “historic” plan finalised in Montreal, Canada seeks to put 30 percent of the planet under protection by 2030, for which it set out four global goals while also underlining objectives to safeguard vital ecosystems like rainforests and wetlands.
The deal also includes targets for countries to cut subsidies deemed harmful to nature, such as those supporting unsustainable agriculture or fisheries, by $500 billion per year by the end of the decade. The new pact also includes a pledge by richer nations to provide at least $30 billion a year in biodiversity financing by 2030.
A ‘historic moment’ in efforts to save environment
At the close of the meeting, Chinese minister of ecology and environment, Huang Runqiu, who is heading the UN biodiversity conference in Montreal, declared the occasion as a “historic moment” in global efforts to save nature, describing the deal as “a package we can all be proud of”.
In what was an unprecedented occurrence for UN conventions, countries finalised the pact hours before the scheduled end of the summit on November 19, following intense two-week negotiations, which saw repeated walkouts by countries unhappy with progress on core issues.
