COP15 nature negotiations racing to finish line but disagreements still plentiful

By The Canadian Press on December 17, 2022.

MONTREAL – The draft text of a new agreement to protect nature from destructive human behaviour is still littered with disagreement with just three days left on the official schedule of the COP15 talks in Montreal.

Some progress has been made on less controversial targets such as gender equity but the marquee targets are still covered in maybes.

That includes the “30 by 30” target being pushed by developed nations to protect 30 per cent of land and marine territory by 2030, as well as requests for financing from developing nations to help them reach their conservation goals.

Developed countries tried to show good faith in the last two days by putting some additional money on the table including another $255 million from Canada announced on Friday afternoon.

But the asks are huge with estimates suggesting nearly C$1 trillion needs to be spent every year to hit the crucial conservation requirements that will not only restore nature but also secure access to clean air, water and secure food supplies.

The draft text said about two-thirds should come by redirecting more than C$687 billion in government subsidies from economic activities that harm nature, including in farming and fisheries, into nature conservation efforts.

Patricia Zurita, CEO of BirdLife International, said the world is investing over a trillion dollars on subsidies that destroy nature.

“We’re putting the money in the wrong places,” she said. “And yes, we need the money for nature because we need to restore a lot of what we have damaged, and that is expensive.”

The United Nations warned three years ago that nearly a million species are facing the threat of extinction in this century and that three-quarters of land-based ecosystems and two-thirds of marine environments had been “significantly” changed by human actions, including agricultural and industrial expansions, consumption patterns and population growth.

The COP15 talks are intended to develop a biodiversity agreement that ends the harmful practices and works to restore what has already been lost.

In addition to demands for more money, developed and developing countries are at an impasse about how new money will flow. The Global South, which typically refers to most countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, wants a new dedicated nature fund, while the wealthy, mainly Northern Hemisphere nations including Canada prefer using existing financial mechanisms.

Europe has made clear a new fund is a no-go zone for them but has promised to help overhaul the existing Global Environment Fund to make it work better for the countries that need it.

Marco Lambertini of the World Wildlife Fund said he’s worried some countries are systematically weakening the ambition of the agreement.

He said in addition to a lack of agreement on 30 by 30, there are also disagreements still about key paragraphs on how the targets will be implemented.

He said the disagreements don’t mean counties that are more ambitious will stop delivering their promises, but rules around consensus in the agreement “allow lower ambition to sometimes hold higher ambition hostage.”

Jennifer Morris, CEO of the U.S. environment group Nature Conservancy, said there have been some good solutions put forward in recent years to fill the finance gap. They include a debt-conversion strategy, often called “debt for nature,” that allows some creditor countries to forgive part of a country’s debt in return for funding conservation.

The talks began Dec. 6 but for the last three days more than 100 environment ministers have been in Montreal helping to add political pressure and prowess to the negotiations.

A news conference is expected midday Saturday to discuss how successful their efforts have been.

Canada is hosting the conference for China, which had to move it away from the city of Kunming due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. China is hoping to have an agreed upon text to present by the end of Sunday.

The talks officially wrap up Monday though many believe it may take longer to get the final wording in place.