China demands 20 billion for developing countries at UN biodiversity conference

At the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Canada represents the draft for a new agreement. Presented by China, it stipulates that rich countries will increase their financial support to developing countries for biodiversity to at least $20 billion a year by 2025.

According to the compromise proposal presented by the Chinese conference chairman in Montreal on Sunday, the amount should rise to USD 30 billion by 2030. 30 percent of the earth’s land and sea area must also be declared a protected area. This was one of the main goals of the conference.

Funding for nature conservation in developing countries is a particularly contentious issue in the negotiations. Developing countries had requested financial assistance of at least $100 billion a year from wealthier countries.

That would be ten times the current amount flowing from industrialized countries to developing countries to enhance biodiversity – and would be equivalent to the $100 billion pledged but not yet fully disbursed to help fight global warming.

The environmental foundation WWF was disappointed with the results so far. “The situation is dramatic. Important key elements of the agreement are still unresolved,” Florian Titze, international policy expert at WWF Germany, said on Sunday, a day before the summit’s scheduled end.

French President Emmanuel Macron asked the participants to reach an ambitious agreement shortly before the end of the meeting. You should not make small decisions, but do the maximum, he wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

The director of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Katrin Schneeberger, tweeted Saturday night from Montreal “we need an ambitious, effective and fair solution”.

Chinese head of state and party leader Xi Jinping had already called for a consensus for better species protection in the world via a video link on Friday. A healthy ecosystem is essential to the well-being of civilization. (sda/afp/dpa)