Countries have reached $200 billion to protect nature. The United States has not participated
This week, a gathering in a country in Rome reached a plan that by 2030, a $200 billion US dollar a year will be generated annually to stop and begin to reverse the destruction of nature.
UN COP16 negotiations on biodiversity began in Colombia last October, but failed to reach an agreement on key elements, including who will contribute, how the money will be collected and who will oversee the money.
President Donald Trump has shrunk participation in the world’s largest economic development financing, so Thursday night’s deal is a welcome boost to global deals.
Led by negotiators from so-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the final deal led delegates to agree to a plan to find at least $200 billion of the United States each year from a range of conservation sources.
COP16 President and Colombia’s outgoing environment minister Susana Muhamad has become increasingly dispersed and diplomatic frictions have increased over the year, a deal that is a victory over nature and multilateralism.
“From Kali to Rome, we all hope that there are still possible benefits, protection of the environment and life and the ability to unite to fight for something greater than the national interest,” Mohammed said.
The agreement is also a victory for Canada’s diplomatic efforts. The financial agreement is the result of a landmark agreement in Montreal in 2022, when countries agreed to protect 30% of the world’s land and oceans.
Canadian negotiators led by Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault reached negotiations in 196 countries through complex and harmful negotiations.
Since then, the Canadian government has pushed funds to domestic protection efforts, including the announcement of $200 million on Thursday against the Inuit-led Arctic protection.
Delegates also agreed to discuss whether there is a need to be in accordance with the requirements of certain developing countries, or whether existing funds operated by global environmental facilities are sufficient, and whether new biodiversity funds are needed. Over the past 30 years, GEF has provided more than $23 billion in the United States to thousands of nature projects.
“Everyone with a spirit of compromise has made concessions, and in general, for developing countries, the results are very
Sure,” Maria Angélica Ikeda, director of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry’s Environment Department, told Reuters that the plenary meeting ended Thursday night.
“I came out of the meeting and was happy and optimistic.”
In recent years, the demand for action has only increased, with the average size of wildlife populations falling by 73% since 1970.
The ghost of aid cuts was also felt during negotiations in the negotiation room, and some countries from Brazil to Egypt and Panama were frustrated that the wealthy had not fulfilled their obligation to provide grants.
Georgina Chandler, head of the London Zoological Society, urged the government to fulfill its commitment to the $30 billion U.S. annually by 2030 to stop and reverse biodiversity losses.
The Rome deal helps clarify the steps required to implement the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which was agreed in 2022 and is committed to a range of environmental goals.
Countries also agreed to develop a range of technical rules to monitor the progress of GBF and ensure that countries release national reports on their biodiversity plans at the next Nature Conference COP17, which will be held in Armenia in 2026.
The negotiations are the beginning of international climate diplomacy that began a busy year, as countries meet at various events to discuss plastic pollution, preserve the oceans and achieve global development goals ahead of the November COP30 climate negotiations.
