Delegates from nearly 200 countries met in Yerevan for almost two weeks to negotiate a new agreement on nature.
The nations reached a consensus on the primary components of a new action plan on Saturday morning. Scientists claim the world is currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction event, with human activities causing species to vanish at 100 times the natural rate.
The United Nations stated that the world is currently on track to achieve only one of the twenty-four targets. Catherine Weller said that while the agreement is good news, it is not particularly exciting or detailed. Weller also noted that nature is critical to the wellbeing of humans and the global economy.
Craig Bennett said that the world is seeing an appalling loss of biodiversity that threatens to collapse ecosystems globally. Bennett added that there are many examples worldwide showing how to turn things around. Countries have already put 252 million hectares of degraded land into protection.
In 2022, nations agreed to provide $30 billion for nature recovery by the end of the decade and to mobilise an additional $170 billion from private sources. The United Nations claimed that pledges are not meeting the required rate because many countries are redirecting international aid toward defence budgets and energy shocks.
More than $1 billion was pledged during the meeting, with half of that amount coming from philanthropists including the Re:wild organisation led by Leonardo DiCaprio. Anna Ducros claimed there was some progress on commitments to reduce subsidies for industries that harm the environment.
Ducros said governments are paying twice because they know they must increase spending on climate and nature while simultaneously damaging the environment. Only $10,000 had been pledged to the Cali Fund at the start of the meeting. Bennett said little progress was made on the Cali Fund because its voluntary nature makes it difficult to pressure companies.
Bennett argued that companies making money from genetic material in biodiverse countries should pay those communities. Monique Barbut, the French Ecological Transition Minister, said that the attacks on science have bothered her a lot. Countries will gather next month for the annual climate conference, COP31.
Prof David Lee said, "This is such a blatant political move...and the IPCC is no such place for such political manoeuvring since the outputs are in humanity's interest."
