Almost 200 countries adopted the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity deal on Monday, including a proposal by developing countries to setup a new fund for nature protection by 2023.
The fund will help implement the aim of protecting 30% from the world's land and water ecosystems by 2030, also featured because the central target from the biodiversity agreement.
In the ultimate text, countries agreed to mobilize $200 billion from different sources (including direct grants, philanthropy and funds), while ending a minimum of $500 billion price of harmful subsidies.
To channel some of those funds, countries adopted an initiative by Brazil and African countries to determine a brand new trust fund. The worldwide Environmental Facility (GEF) will establish the fund by 2023 and it'll later have its own governing body.
EU president Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement it had been “very positive” that countries adopted measurable targets to protect nature, “as along with a mechanism to finance their implementation with the Global Biodiversity Fund.”
In Montreal, delegates from every country in the world aside from the US negotiated a deal to reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030. Governments decided to protect 30% from the world's land and water ecosystems by that date.
To accomplish this goal, backing it with proper finance would be a key lesson from last decade’s Aichi biodiversity agreement, which failed to deliver on every target set. The funding gap for biodiversity has been estimated at $700 billion per year.
Lina Barrera, vice-president for international policy at Conservation International, said the development of the brand new biodiversity fund is a “necessary step”, but added “there continues to be farther to go” to shut the funding gap.
Quick cash
One Latin American negotiator told Climate Home the initiative for any new fund emerged in the need of some developing countries to access cooperation funds quickly, that was often not possible through the GEF.
“It takes too long from the moment are applying (to GEF funds) until the money gets to the field. The risk is implementing (the Kunming-Montreal deal) quickly, given we've only eight years left until 2030,” the delegate said.
Early within the negotiations, several 20 countries harbouring 70% from the world's biodiversity called for a “supplementary global biodiversity fund” to become set up in order to “overcome the concerns regarding accessibility of funds”.
The final text reflects some of these concerns, as it calls around the GEF to setup a fund “with a simple and effective application and approval process, providing easy and efficient access to resources.”
Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO of the GEF, welcomed the adoption from the Global Biodiversity Fund and said the facility would work to operationalise the fund “in a timely manner”. “Today's agreement is wonderful news, also it creates real momentum once we push toward 2030 and the critical goals in front of us,” he added in a statement.
Who pays?
Donors towards the fund includes developed countries and developing “countries that voluntarily assume obligations of developed country parties.”
However, most of the fund's money will come from other sources for example private sector or philanthropy, as developed nations only dedicated to directly provide $20 billion annually by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030.
Megaforested nations for example Brazil and also the Democratic Republic of the Congo both criticised this financial pledge, using the DRC threatening to veto the whole agreement over this. Within the final plenary, the country's vice-minister `Eve Bazaiba welcomed the Kunming-Montreal deal while “expressing reservations” around the financial target.
Observers welcomed the development of the worldwide Biodiversity Fund along with the targets in the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity deal, while stressing the requirement for broader reforms.
“[The biodiversity fund] will not be sufficient to resolve the biodiversity finance challenge: we want deep reforms in banking institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,” said a persons rights NGO Avaaz inside a statement.
Just a month ago, in the UN climate change talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, the earth's governments also agreed to setup a new fund to aid victims of utmost weather events.
This was regarded as a large breakthrough, but there are still questions on how to have it running, which countries will bring about it and which countries is going to be eligible for support.
