Pressure is mounting on rich countries, called upon to finance efforts to protect the biodiversity of developing countries with a fund to implement the “peace with nature pact” being negotiated in Montreal. Developed countries, including Canada, oppose it.

Mobilization of resources, as the participants of the 15th United Nations Conference on Biodiversity call it, is on everyone’s lips, the real red thread of a summit which must lead to an agreement ambitious enough to stop the destruction of the planet. and its resources by 2030.

To achieve this, 193 countries have been debating in detail in Montreal since December 3 in order to agree on some twenty objectives to save ecosystems: protect 30% of land and seas, reduce pesticides by half, restore between 20 % and 30% of degraded land, etc.

Dozens of countries, led by Brazil, India, Indonesia and Africa, are calling in unison for financial subsidies of at least $100 billion a year, or 1% of global GDP until 2030, to implement this peace pact with nature. Ten times more than the current amounts of aid and as much as those promised for the fight against global warming.

To accommodate these sums, the South wants to see the creation of a new global fund for biodiversity. The current context is much more favorable there, notes the co-chairman of the negotiations, Basile Van Havre, after obtaining a fund in November intended to compensate for the climate damage already suffered by poor countries.

Use existing funds

But the idea of an umpteenth fund does not appeal to rich countries, which want to favor a reform of existing financial flows.

The countries of the North understand that ambition must be accompanied by financial resources and have understood the need to have access to sources of financing that are transparent, predictable and accessible, assured the Canadian Minister for the Environment Steven Guilbeault, during of a press conference, halfway through the summit, which is being held until December 19.

“But creating a new fund could take years, he argued, citing the seven years spent setting up the current Global Environment Facility (GEF). It would be preferable to use existing funds and pursue the alignment of global finance. This is what we are going to work on, he added, taking up the argument also put forward by the European Union.”

On the other hand, we have to agree on the fact that it cannot only be public money, he declared, and look […] at all the sources of financing: private, philanthropic, public as well as the World Bank, the IMF and other development banks.

“In the end, there is far too little money on the table, which is one of the main reasons why the conversation is difficult, analyzes Anna Ogniewska, adviser at Greenpeace.Getting things done requires much more meaningful commitments from the EU and European governments.”

“We believe all targets can be accepted, said COP15 President Huang Runqiu, China’s Minister of Ecology and Environment.”

COP15 has not yet recorded any major progress one week before the end of the negotiations. However, the ambitions must be achievable, continues the minister. It must be ensured that the framework can be applied in the field.

Source : Radio-Canada