<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/19/cop15-historic-deal-signed-to-halt-biodiversity-loss-by-2030-aoe>
"Governments appear to have signed a once-in-a-decade deal to halt the
destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, but the agreement seems to have been forced
through by the Chinese president, ignoring the objections of some African
states.
After more than four years of negotiations, repeated delays due to the Covid-19
pandemic and talks into the night on Sunday in Montreal, nearly 200 countries –
but not the US or the Vatican – signed an agreement at the biodiversity Cop15,
which was co-hosted by Canada and China, to put humanity on a path to living in
harmony with nature by the middle of the century.
In an extraordinary plenary that began on Sunday evening and lasted for more
than seven hours, countries wrangled over the final agreement. Finally, at
about 3.30am local time on Monday, news broke that an agreement had been
struck.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s negotiator appeared to block the final
deal presented by China, telling the plenary that he could not support the
agreement in its current form because it did not create a new fund for
biodiversity, separate to the existing UN fund, the global environment facility
(GEF). China, Brazil, Indonesia, India and Mexico are the largest recipients of
GEF funding, and some African states wanted more money for conservation as part
of the final deal.
However, moments later, China’s environment minister and the Cop15 president,
Huang Runqiu, signalled that the agreement was finished and agreed, and the
plenary burst into applause.
Negotiators from Cameroon, Uganda and the DRC expressed incredulity that the
agreement had been put through. The DRC said it had formally objected to the
agreement, but a UN lawyer said it had not. The negotiator from Cameroon called
it “a fraud”, while Uganda said there had been a “coup d’état” against the
Cop15."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
