Governments move closer to deal at biodiversity conference

There were signs Sunday that negotiators were closing in on a deal at a U.N. conference that would protect nature and provide financing to set up protected areas and restore degraded ecosystems.

China, which holds the presidency at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, released a draft deal that calls for protecting 30% of the most important global land and marine areas by 2030. Currently, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas are protected.

The draft also calls for raising $200 billion by 2030 for biodiversity and working to phase out or reform subsidies that could provide another $500 billion for nature. As part of that, it calls to increase to at least $20 billion annually or by some estimates triple the amount that goes to poor countries by 2025. That number would increase to $30 billion each year by 2030.

The draft now goes to a meeting of all governments this evening and could be adopted soon after.

“Today the world’s countries rose to the occasion and produced a historic draft that agrees to protect at least 30% of our planet," Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and Pristine Seas Founder, said in a statement. "This recognizes years of work by negotiators, researchers, conservationists, and Indigenous Peoples. Now we just need to maintain the political will to get this ambition across the finish line without diminishing its scope. World leaders must remain committed to bold action in Montreal.”

The ministers and government officials from about 190 countries mostly agree 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...