U.N. BIODIVERSITY TALKS IN NAIROBI PUSH FOR CONSERVATION BY 2030

NAIROBI - U.N. negotiators began talks on Tuesday in Nairobi toward reaching a new global pact for protecting nature and wildlife, after a previous round of talks in March failed to make progress.

With scientists warning that an estimated one million species are at risk of extinction, the United Nations is asking countries to designate 30 percent of their land and sea areas for conservation by 2030.

Meeting this “30-by-30” goal would help protect the world’s environments against poaching, pollution or encroaching human development, scientists say.

Earth has seen five mass extinction events and scientists believe we are now in the sixth, with animal and plant species going extinct at a rate not seen in 10 million years.

Only 17 percent of the Earth’s land areas and seven percent of the ocean currently fall under some form of protection.

The talks on Tuesday were buoyed by a sense of progress after organisers announced the U.N. Biodiversity summit, or “COP15,” would be moved to Montreal, Canada, after being postponed four times in China due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have every reason to be fully confident that the global biodiversity framework will be adopted”, said China’s environment minister, Huang Runqiu, who is also the COP15 president.

Already, more than 90 countries, including the United States, have committed to the 30-by-30 target, according to the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People.

The head of the U.N. Environment Programme implored delegates on Tuesday to reach a final draft agreement during the Nairobi talks this week. That draft would then be voted on at COP15 in December.

“Here today and these days, it is imperative that you make significant progress to ensure success at COP15 and thereafter,” UNEP Executive

Secretary Inger Andersen said during Tuesday’s opening plenary.

But several sticking points remain, with the draft text currently riddled with square brackets that indicate a lack of agreement on issues such as goals for reducing pesticide use.

Funding remains another area of contention. A coalition of environmental groups, including the International Union for Conservation of Nature and World Wildlife Fund, are calling for wealthy nations to contribute $60 billion per year of the $700 billion needed annually to address the biodiversity crisis. – REUTERS.