U.N. talks in Rome end with a $200 billion annual plan to protect nature
Global negotiators wrapped up an extended session of the United Nations biodiversity conference, COP16, with key commitments regarding the necessary funds and the institutions through which these funds will be channeled to protect the world’s biodiversity.
The countries agreed on how they would contribute $200 billion a year by 2030 that was committed in principle at an earlier meeting in Montreal, News.Az reports citing The Washington Times.
The money includes a plan to raise $20 billion in annual conservation financing for developing nations by 2025, with that number rising to $30 billion annually by 2030, and on details of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims at placing 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.
Earlier this week, the countries also agreed to create the Cali Fund, which will create methods for industries that commercially benefit from biodiversity to contribute to its conservation.
As the meeting concluded late Thursday in Rome, participants stood up and applauded the outcomes.
“The applause is for all of you. You have done an amazing job,” said the COP16 president, Susana Muhamad of Colombia.
COP16’s successful conclusion is the first United Nations meeting in many months which ended on a positive note, as various meetings all through last year related to dealing with the global plastic pollution, climate change and the earlier biodiversity meeting itself failed to reach agreements or left many stakeholders disappointed with the outcomes reached.
“These days of work in Rome have demonstrated the commitment of the parties to advance the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework,” said Muhamad who is also Colombia’s former environment minister. Muhamad said it was the collective effort of all stakeholders which resulted in the key decisions being agreed upon. “Only by working together can we make Peace with Nature a reality,” she said.
The two-day meeting addressed issues that were left unresolved in earlier discussions held in Cali, Colombia in late 2024, focusing on securing funds to meet ambitious targets set in Montreal in 2022. The Cali meetings ended without a quorum as talks ran into overtime and too few delegates remained to guarantee that any decisions made had the backing of all U.N. member states.
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