montrealCanada’s environment minister said Tuesday (December 13) that the creation of a new global fund for biodiversity, a key demand of developing countries at a UN conference in Montreal, “will take years.” He said it would be less effective than reforming the existing fiscal mechanism.
Ottawa’s position is to bolster the developed world’s consensus on a thorny issue that has emerged as a key stumbling block in negotiations to hammer out a new global agreement for nature at the United Nations Conference of the Parties to Biological Diversity, known as COP15. It reflects.
Delegates from around the world have gathered for the December 7-19 Summit, a decade-long framework aimed at saving the planet’s forests, oceans and species before it’s too late.
The draft goals include basic commitments to protect 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030, end subsidies for harmful fisheries and agriculture, tackle invasive species and reduce pesticide use. It contains.
Dozens of countries, including Brazil, India, Indonesia and African countries, have pledged at least US$100 billion (RM442 billion) annually, or 1% of global gross domestic product, to protect ecosystems through 2030. demanding money. The current figure is about $10 billion annually.
“Northern nations understand that ambition must be accompanied by money,” Canada’s Stephen Guilbeau said at a press conference held midway through the talks.
However, “my concern is that the creation of the new fund could take years, during which Southern countries would not get any money from it,” he added. .
He recalled that it took seven years to create the Global Environment Facility, now the leading multilateral mechanism for biodiversity. The donor has pledged US$5.3 billion to this fund from 2022 to 2026, the current cycle.
“That’s why I think it’s better to use existing funds,” he said, pursuing reforms that would make money more accessible.
“On the one hand, we have to come to terms with the fact that public money alone cannot do it,” Guilbeau said, adding that private and philanthropic contributions, as well as multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and international currencies, are needed. emphasized that it is fund.
After the first week of negotiations ended in a stalemate, he concluded, “We need to try harder this week.”
Disagreement between developed and developing countries over the creation of a new biodiversity fund has sparked a November meeting in Egypt on the creation of a “loss and damage” fund for countries most vulnerable to climate change. It mirrors similar discussions at the United Nations Climate Conference. We eventually met. – AFP
