A historic biodiversity agreement reached on Monday at the 15th meeting of the 
Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) 
in Montreal, Canada.

"The package is adopted," the president of the COP15 and China's minister of 
ecology and environment, Huang Runqiu, declared at a plenary session in 
Montreal, sparking loud applause from delegates.

The biodiversity agreement, entitled Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity 
Framework, aims at reversing biodiversity loss and setting the world on path of 
recovery. It lays out four long-term biodiversity goals for 2050 and 23 
specific "action targets" to be completed by 2030, covering three areas, 
namely, biodiversity conservation, sustainable use, fair and equitable 
benefit-sharing of genetic resources.

Key issues have been agreed by all parties. The most significant part of the 
agreement is a commitment to protect 30 percent of Earth's land and sea areas 
as protected areas by 2030, while so far, only 17 percent of terrestrial and 10 
percent of marine areas are protected.

The agreement calls for raising $200 billion by 2030 for biodiversity from a 
range of sources and working to phase out or reform subsidies that could 
provide another $500 billion for nature. Besides, it calls for increasing to at 
least $20 billion annually, and by 2025 that money will go to developing 
countries, and by 2030, the number will reach $30 billion.

The framework also refers to synergistic conservation between biodiversity 
conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

During the plenary session, delegates expressed the importance of putting aside 
differences and working together, and expressed their support for the framework.

As the presidency of COP15, China held the first phase of the meeting in 
Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, in 2021, and the second 
phase this year in Montreal, Canada, continued the theme of "Ecological 
Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth."

China has always attached great importance to biodiversity conservation and 
actively promoted the convening of COP15, which came after nearly four years of 
"marathon" negotiations and several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Be it in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, or in enhancing biodiversity 
protection and achieving sustainable development globally, solidarity and 
cooperation is the only effective way to address global challenges," said 
Chinese President Xi Jinping via video at the opening ceremony of the 
high-level segment of the second phase of COP15 on December 15.

Even as negotiations ahead of the conference remain deeply divisive, China made 
every effort to bridge the gap, to chart the course of the negotiations, and 
finally to push for the conclusion of the framework as scheduled.

This framework is of historic significance as humanity seeks to build a healthy 
and prosperous global ecosystem and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

CGTN: 
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-12-19/COP15-negotiators-reach-agreement-on-global-biodiversity-framework--1fThFHyR68w/index.html


Source CGTN

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   Caption: Historic global biodiversity framework reached at COP15 with the 
active efforts of China