Canada backs down to move negotiations forward
The Canadian authorities announced, this Friday, an extension of its budget intended for international aid to try to relaunch the negotiations of the COP15 on biodiversity which is being held in Montreal.
Canada announced on Friday an extension of its international aid, a new signal sent to developing countries to try to bring to fruition the “pact of peace with nature” stuck in difficult negotiations at COP15 in Montreal.
Ottawa “announces additional funding of C$255 million to support initiatives that help developing countries protect nature and improve climate resilience,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Environment Minister. This funding brings Canada’s international assistance for biodiversity to C$1.5 billion, the minister said.
This announcement comes at a time when environment ministers from around the world are meeting in Montreal to try to resolve the negotiations. Obtaining an agreement is dependent on progress in discussions on the financial assistance provided to developing countries to meet the twenty ambitious ecological objectives under discussion by 2030, including that of protecting 30% of land and seas. of the globe.
Brazil is its partners want 100 billion from the rich countries
Summit heavyweight Brazil is demanding – alongside India, Indonesia and African countries, among others – at least “100 billion dollars a year” in subsidies from rich countries. That is about ten times the current transfers from North to South for biodiversity. And as much as the 100 billion promised, but not fully paid, for the fight against global warming.
When the ministers arrived on Thursday, a dozen developed countries, mainly European, alongside Japan and Australia in particular, recalled having kept their promises to double their aid or are preparing to do so, as well as to support an increase in financial flows to the south. This signal was welcomed by the NGOs present at the Montreal summit, without its diplomatic effects yet being felt on the negotiations, which must be completed by Monday, December 19.
The ambition remains to seal an agreement on biodiversity as historic as that of Paris for the climate in 2015. Because time is running out: 70% of the world’s ecosystems are degraded, largely because of human activity, more than a million species are threatened with extinction on the planet, etc. And beyond the moral implications, the whole world’s prosperity is at stake, say the experts: more than half of the world’s GDP depends on nature and its services.
AFP
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