(Montreal) Progress has been made in the last few days at COP15 in Montreal and the collaboration between Canada and China in organizing the event is positive, according to the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). ).
During a press briefing with the media at the end of the day on Monday, the executive secretary of the CBD, the UN body in charge of COP15, said she was more optimistic than last week.
“We are hopeful that there will be an agreement before midnight on December 19, we have no plans to go beyond this date”, but “there are obstacles in the road”, indicated Elizabeth Maruma Mrema.
Among the obstacles, she explained that “all the numerical values of the goals” of the draft declaration “are still in square brackets”.
Square brackets, or parentheses, indicate areas of the text where there is no consensus.
“Are we planning to reduce the level of species extinction by 15%? Do we want to reduce the use of pesticides by 15%? mentioned Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, when The Canadian Press asked her to cite examples of “obstacles”.
PHOTO ANDREJ IVANOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema
The answers to these questions will have to come in the next few hours, as the draft declaration is due to be presented to ministers from the various countries on Thursday, when the so-called “high-level segment” begins where political representatives will work to put the finishing touches to the deal.
According to Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, 135 ministers from different countries will be present in the coming days.
The 196 countries gathered in Montreal must agree by December 19 to put in place the global framework that will make it possible to curb the decline of biodiversity.
Positive collaboration between China and Canada
China is the chair of this year’s biodiversity meeting, but Canada is the host.
Despite increasingly strained relations between the two countries, the CBD executive secretary said that representatives of the two nations were managing to collaborate well. “What we see is that China and Canada are playing the role they have to play” and “that they are showing leadership”, specifying that the ministers of the two countries meet regularly.
China was to host the meeting, but health rules and the repeated confinement of major Chinese cities forced the United Nations to turn to Canada.
Hope and a “constructive spirit”
In the morning, the European Union’s director general for the environment, Florika Fink-Hooijer, said she had “a lot of hope” because of the “constructive spirit” of the delegates gathered at COP15.
“It’s progressing, if you look there’s a lot of finalized text, and that gives us hope”, indicated the European representative, adding “that before the ministers arrive on Thursday”, there is still time “for do the technical work.
Until then, the delegates must therefore agree on as many objectives as possible and make the draft text as clear as possible.
We want to have “about 80% clear text” on Wednesday, a Canadian official told The Canadian Press.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told The Canadian Press in an interview Monday that during formal negotiations on Saturday, the text became about 35% clearer, with fewer words in brackets among the 22 targets. .
Financing at the heart of the negotiations
At a press conference, a spokeswoman for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) pointed out that there were positive conversations around certain objectives, including the flagship proposal which aims to protect 30% of land and waters of the planet by 2030.
But Lucia Ruiz Bustos, WWF’s biodiversity and finance coordinator in Mexico, said negotiations appear to be stalled over how the world will fund its goals and targets. Guido Broekhoven, head of research and development at WWF, said there is a lot of talk about how to find US$700 billion by 2030.
This is the amount that would be necessary, according to several countries, to finance the plan which will make it possible to reverse the decline of biodiversity, but governments alone will not be able to finance this effort.
“The actual amount that will be needed for the implementation of the global framework for the 2020-2030 decade will depend on the ambition” of the countries, underlined Guido Broekhoven.
“The higher the ambition, the more resources will be needed,” he added.
The various delegations present in Montreal are counting on philanthropic contributions, but also on the support of the private sector in order to find the means to implement a plan that meets expectations.
The person in charge of research and development within the WWF made a point of underlining the important number of private companies present at the conference of Montreal and the importance of their possible contribution.
“We have never seen so many companies participate in a convention on biological diversity” and several of them “want to understand how to contribute to solving the problems of biodiversity”.