At the UN Nature Conference in Montreal, they are trying to reach an agreement on how people and nature could live in harmony. According to the draft agreement, 30 percent of the Earth would be protected.
Johannes Blom,
Jenni Frilander
Earth’s nature must be put on the road to recovery so that the loss of nature can be stopped and we will continue to have clean water, air and food.
The most important goal of the UN Nature Conference is huge for our entire planet. We want to turn the impoverishment of nature into enrichment again, by 2030 at the latest.
The main goal is to protect 30 percent of the Earth’s nature by 2030. Now about 17 percent of the lands and 10 percent of the seas are protected. The loss of nature hasn’t exactly shown signs of abating.
The four goals are:
The agreement also includes more than 20 other goals. These include, for example, the reduction of plant protection substances that are harmful to nature and requirements for companies to consider and report on their effects on nature.
Representatives of indigenous peoples want to be included in the agreement because 80 percent of our planet’s biodiversity is on indigenous peoples’ lands.
– Securing the life chances of future generations is particularly important for young people globally. Decisions cannot be made continuously short-sightedly in pursuit of immediate benefit, but a long-term review is needed, says the youth delegate of the Finnish delegation Emma Sairanen.
A peace treaty with nature was published
The chairmanship of the meeting was announced by China on Sunday compromise motion on the agreement between the countries (you will switch to another service)which would lead to the planned “peace agreement with nature”.
The most important feature of the draft is that the 30 percent conservation goal in land and sea areas by 2030 is clearly written into the goals. The quality of conservation measures that Finland needs and the respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities are also emphasized.
The draft also wants to ensure urgent treatment measures, especially to revive endangered species, and to start the restoration of at least 30 percent of the degraded land, sea, coastal and inland water ecosystems by 2030.
The arrival and establishment of harmful alien species in especially sensitive ecosystems is to be halved by 2030. The risks to the ecosystem caused by pollution and harmful chemicals, such as insecticides, are also wanted to a sustainable level. In contrast to previous drafts, light and sound pollution, for example, are not named in the latest text.
The quantitative goal of halving the ecological footprint, longed for by nature organizations and many states, is missing from the recent compromise proposal. However, the text mentions the need to reduce overconsumption and the global footprint of consumption by 2030 and halve the world’s food waste.
500 billion removed from harmful subsidies
One of the big controversial issues at the meeting has been how much money Western countries give to developing countries, whose regions also contain a large part of our planet’s biodiversity.
Several countries have announced new commitments at the meeting. The EU intends to double its own funding to approximately seven billion dollars to prevent the loss of nature. Finland promised to increase its development cooperation funding for the protection of biodiversity to around 14 million euros next year.
The gap between the need for financing and the promised money has been around 700 billion per year.
According to the compromise proposal, around 500 billion could be covered by winding down support policies harmful to nature, starting with the most harmful supports. According to the latest draft of the agreement, the remaining 200 billion would be collected from various sources.
In the proposal, developed countries would increase their funding by 20 billion dollars a year by 2025 and increase the amount to 30 billion by 2030.
In addition to this aid, the palette presents, among other things, the redirection of national cash flows, encouraging the private sector to invest and encouraging innovative systems, such as payment for ecosystem services.
In addition to nature conservation, the framework being drawn up now has a significant humanitarian dimension: the rights of indigenous peoples are emphasized in several different goals, as are the rights of women, children and the disabled.
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