UN nature discussions conclude with a plan worth $200 billion annually.
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Although they did not agree to create a new global nature fund, which is a major demand of emerging nations, more than 140 countries agreed to pursue a plan to raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually to help reverse the significant losses in biodiversity. In order to help speed up the flow of funding to projects, nations participating in the 16th United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16, in Rome postponed making a decision on a new fund until 2028. A similar inconclusive summit in Colombia last year preceded the current discussions. Susana Muhamad, Colombia's departing environment minister and COP16 president, stated that a financial plan approved Thursday, to the cheers and tears of delegates, supports "our collective capacity to sustain life on this planet." Negotiators encountered a showed that "multilateralism can deliver" in the "extremely polarized, fragmented, divisive, and conflicted geopolitical landscape." The COP16 biodiversity conference is inaugurated by Susana Muhamad on February 25 at the FAO headquarters in Rome. In order to meet the goals of the historic nature pact, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted in December 2022, the agreement will advise nations on how to raise $200 billion annually by the end of the decade. These goals include reducing the use of hazardous chemicals, halving food waste, and protecting clean water. Maria Angélica Ikeda, the head of Brazil's delegation, described the decision as a "balanced, compromise solution." "Very happy," she said, is Brazil, which will host the next major UN climate summit in November.
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The pact calls for developed countries to "improve their efforts" to raise $20 billion a year by the end of this year for developing nations. Additionally, it calls for improved coordination between the environment and finance ministers and a research on the connection between debt sustainability and environmental protection, which experts have hailed as innovative and progressive. According to Georgina Chandler, head of policy at the international conservation charity Zoological Society of London, reaching an agreement on the proposals "demonstrates that countries can come together and agree an ambitious outcome for nature." Over the next five years, it "recognizes that government finance is not going to be enough" and the necessity of diversifying funding sources. There have been several obstacles to global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss given recent failures in environmental diplomacy, when developing countries have accused wealthier nations at successive summits supported by the UN of not doing enough to increase the flow of cash. US President Donald Trump's actions to cut financing for climate change initiatives and withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement have made it worse. Participants in the COP16 biodiversity summit held on February 25 at the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. Pressure was put on negotiators in Rome by Trump's decision last month to freeze important sources of funding for biodiversity, notably the US Agency for International Development, and the UK's action this week to redirect foreign aid to defence spending. Since the US does not have a Convention on Biological Diversity signature, it is unable to directly influence the discussions, but an American delegation is typically in attendance. This week, the seat designated for US officials remained vacant. Rome was let down by certain developing nations who had called for the establishment of a new global nature fund. Instead, attendees decided on a procedure to investigate the issue, with a final decision anticipated in 2028. "Animals are going extinct, rivers are suffering, and forests are burning," stated Juan Carlos Alurralde Tejada, Bolivia's chief negotiator. "Biodiversity cannot wait for an interminable bureaucratic process."
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