Editor's Pick: Countries reach Paris-style deal for biodiversity protection at COP15

Close to 200 countries, after four years of fractious talks, approved a historic Paris-style deal on Monday to protect and reverse dangerous loss to global biodiversity. This deal, which India is party to, came after an intense final session of negotiations at the UN COP-15 summit in Canada, which began on December 7. Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu, the president of 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), declared the Kunming-Montreal Agreement adopted. The Chinese-brokered deal is aimed at saving the lands, oceans and species from pollution, degradation, and climate change. This comes a month after the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Egypt, which became a media spectacle as world leaders made massive commitments to cut emissions. In the 2015 Paris agreement, nations had agreed on the goal to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and began setting concrete national targets on climate action. While the CBD, also originating from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, does not get equivalent attention as the climate summit, biodiversity is inching down a critical path of loss. Based on current trends, the UN reckons, an estimated 34,000 plant and 5,200 animal species, including one in eight of the world’s bird species, face extinction. Monitored wildlife populations have seen a devastating 69% drop on average since 1970, according to the Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022 of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Despite being home to much of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity, 45% of our original forests are gone. Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who was part of negotiations, told The Hindu that broadly the agreement was “positive” as far as India was concerned. India, like it did in the climate summit, argued that different nations (developed and developing) have differing levels of responsibility towards biodiversity conservation as climate change also impacts nature. India, in this regard, is not alone as multiple developing countries have made repeated calls for the inclusion of the differing responsibility principle in finance-related targets. However, applying this principle to biodiversity conservation has not been straightforward as compared to climate negotiations, and there have been repeated disagreements between the global north and south. The current deal commits to progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources by 2030, mobilising at least $200 billion a year. This represents roughly a doubling from a 2020 baseline. It draws up 23 targets for countries, which include axing environmentally “destructive” farming subsidies, reducing risk from pesticides, and tackling invasive species. On this issue, India had said a numerical global target for pesticide reduction in the agriculture sector was unnecessary and must be left for countries to decide. It pointed out that agriculture was critical for the livelihoods and cultures of a large part of its population and developing countries like India had a responsibility towards poverty eradication and sustainable development. As this editorial in today’s edition of The Hindu points out, India’s stance of not wanting hard targets on reducing the use of pesticides, despite knowing that their effects on impacting biodiversity, seems inconsistent when seen with India’s other long-held stance as a champion of conservation and living in harmony with nature. Besides, biodiversity loss continues to be largely invisible despite its victims being extremely visible, as it cannot be as finely accounted for as per capita carbon emissions. However, while the larger deal did not turn out to be the “Paris moment for nature” as its conveners had envisioned, it is a start as countries have agreed on preparing concrete road maps by 2024 and the richer nations, to commit $30 billion an annum by 2030. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor‘s Pick and more. Click here. The Hindu’s Editorials A planet in crisis: on tangible outcomes from biological diversity convention Destiny’s man: On Lionel Messi scripting Argentina to FIFA World Cup win The Hindu Daily News Quiz Lionel Messi’s Argentina finally took the FIFA World Cup on Sunday after a wait of how many years? 36 years 40 years 24 years 12 years To know the answer and to play the full quiz, click here. [logo] Editor's Pick 20 DECEMBER 2022 [The Hindu logo] In the Editor's Pick newsletter, The Hindu explains why a story was important enough to be carried on the front page of today's edition of our newspaper. [Arrow]( [Open in browser]( [Mail icon]( [More newsletters]( Dear reader, We have now made it easier for you to manage your The Hindu newsletter subscriptions in one place! 1. Visit [The Hindu newsletters page]( 2. Click MANAGE tab and then click LOGIN / SIGN UP 3. If you don’t have an account with The Hindu, please click SIGN UP OR If you already have an account with The Hindu with this email ID, please login using the email ID Countries reach Paris-style deal for biodiversity protection at COP15 Close to 200 countries, after four years of fractious talks, [approved a historic Paris-style deal]( Monday to protect and reverse dangerous loss to global biodiversity. This deal, which India is party to, came after an intense final session of negotiations at the UN COP-15 summit in Canada, which began on December 7. Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu, the president of 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), declared the Kunming-Montreal Agreement adopted. The Chinese-brokered deal is aimed at saving the lands, oceans and species from pollution, degradation, and climate change. This comes a month after the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Egypt, which became a media spectacle as world leaders made massive commitments to cut emissions. In the 2015 Paris agreement, nations had agreed on the goal to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and began setting concrete national targets on climate action. While the CBD, also originating from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, does not get equivalent attention as the climate summit, biodiversity is inching down a critical path of loss. Based on current trends, the UN reckons, an estimated 34,000 plant and 5,200 animal species, including one in eight of the world’s bird species, face extinction. Monitored wildlife populations have seen a devastating 69% drop on average since 1970, according to the Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022 of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Despite being home to much of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity, 45% of our original forests are gone. Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who was part of negotiations, told The Hindu that broadly the agreement was “positive” as far as India was concerned. India, like it did in the climate summit, [argued that]( nations (developed and developing) have differing levels of responsibility towards biodiversity conservation as climate change also impacts nature. India, in this regard, is not alone as multiple developing countries have made repeated calls for the inclusion of the differing responsibility principle in finance-related targets. However, applying this principle to biodiversity conservation has not been straightforward as compared to climate negotiations, and there have been repeated disagreements between the global north and south. The current deal commits to progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources by 2030, mobilising at least $200 billion a year. This represents roughly a doubling from a 2020 baseline. It draws up 23 targets for countries, which include axing environmentally “destructive” farming subsidies, reducing risk from pesticides, and tackling invasive species. On this issue, India had said a numerical global target for pesticide reduction in the agriculture sector[was unnecessary]( and must be left for countries to decide. It pointed out that agriculture was critical for the livelihoods and cultures of a large part of its population and developing countries like India had a responsibility towards poverty eradication and sustainable development. As [this editorial]( in today’s edition of The Hindu points out, India’s stance of not wanting hard targets on reducing the use of pesticides, despite knowing that their effects on impacting biodiversity, seems inconsistent when seen with India’s other long-held stance as a champion of conservation and living in harmony with nature. Besides, biodiversity loss continues to be largely invisible despite its victims being extremely visible, as it cannot be as finely accounted for as per capita carbon emissions. However, while the larger deal did not turn out to be the “Paris moment for nature” as its conveners had envisioned, it is a start as countries have agreed on preparing concrete road maps by 2024 and the richer nations, to commit $30 billion an annum by 2030. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor‘s Pick and more. [Click here.]( The Hindu’s Editorials [Arrow][A planet in crisis: on tangible outcomes from biological diversity convention]( [Arrow][Destiny’s man: On Lionel Messi scripting Argentina to FIFA World Cup win]( The Hindu Daily News Quiz Lionel Messi’s Argentina finally took the FIFA World Cup on Sunday after a wait of how many years? - 36 years - 40 years - 24 years - 12 years To know the answer and to play the full quiz, [click here](. Interested in daily updates from Tamil Nadu? 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