UN nature deal calls to protect 30% of planet by 2030

A UN nature deal proposed Sunday calls to protect at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030 and asks rich countries to stump up $20 billion in yearly aid for developing nations to save their ecosystems.
China, chairing the COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal, presented a long-awaited compromise text aiming to seal a pact to save the species and ecosystems on which life depends.
It called on wealthy countries to increase financial aid to the developing world to $20 billion annually by 2025, rising to $30 billion per year by 2030.

The document also called on countries to “ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 percent of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas” are effectively conserved and managed.
Crucially, it includes language safeguarding the rights of Indigenous people as stewards of their lands, strongly backed by campaigners.

The compromise text was quickly welcomed by conservationists, but still needs to be agreed upon by the 196 signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity before it is finalized.
More than 10 days of fraught biodiversity negotiations came to a head as delegates examined the compromise draft agreement just as the football World Cup between France and Argentina kicked off in Qatar.
A plenary session was scheduled for Sunday evening when countries will have the opportunity to approve the deal. Negotiations over the past 10 days have been slow however and observers warned the talks, scheduled to end on Monday, could run over.
The proposal “responds to parties’ calls for ambitious outcomes by 2030, including calls to enhance ecological integrity, reduce the risk of pathogen spillover, and conserve at least 30% of our lands and oceans,” said Alfred DeGemmis of the Wildlife Conservation Society in a statement.