Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault was also optimistic: “We’ve made tremendous progress.” Shortly before the planned end of the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron appealed to the participants to conclude an ambitious agreement. “My message to our partners is: Now is not the time for small decisions, but for big ones! Let’s work together to achieve the most ambitious agreement possible,” he said on Twitter.
Observers had warned that the conference would fail because, in particular, the financing of species protection in developing countries is controversial. The question is whether developed countries will increase their financial support for developing countries to a level that will enable them to achieve the 20 ambitious environmental protection targets to be debated in Montréal by 2030. Around 30 percent of the earth’s land and sea areas are to become protected areas.
The federal government announced an initiative on Saturday that is intended to help resolve the dispute. It is intended to support developing countries in adapting their national environmental policies to global environmental protection goals. According to the Federal Environment Ministry, Germany will support the partnership launched jointly with Colombia and other countries with 29 million euros.
At the World Conference on Nature, almost 5,000 delegates from 193 countries are fighting for a new species protection agreement. The targets of the previous agreement were largely missed. The negotiations in Montréal, which began in the middle of last week, will continue until Monday.
