A new nature fund has received a call for contributions from developed nations after it was left with just two contributors’ $40 million (£32 million) worth of funds.
Governments agreed to the establishment of a fund to assist developing countries in meeting the goals of the deal, which included a target to provide $200 billion for nature annually by 2030, at the Cop15 biodiversity summit in December, where countries agreed to this decade’s biodiversity targets, which included aims to protect 30% of Earth.
As rich and developing nations disagreed over how the objectives would be paid, there were walkouts and late-night arguments during the closing hours of negotiations in Montreal, Canada, and this was largely due to the organization of the group.
Eventually, governments came to terms with the creation of a fund under the auspices of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the primary UN source of funding for biodiversity in the natural world.
Read also: Uber Eats Introduces AI Chatbot to Provide Customer Recommendations
GEF Summit Outcome
At a GEF summit last week in Vancouver, nations formally authorized the foundation of the fund, but it was underfunded because only Canada and the UK contributed, giving $C200 million and £10 million, respectively.
According to GEF regulations, the fund must still raise around $40 million by the end of the year in order to officially open. Even though the fund’s official establishment has been welcomed, nations including Japan, the US, and EU states have been pushed to make contributions.
It is exciting to see the contributions previously declared by Canada and the UK, as well as the declarations by a number of nations that further commitments will be due soon, according to interim UN biodiversity director David Cooper.
“Things are going OK so far. In order for the first initiatives funded by the new fund to get off the ground in time for Cop16, we are now requesting further commitments from nations and other sources.
The establishment of the fund, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, was a significant accomplishment since it would open up a new source of funding for biodiversity preservation.
However, it issued a warning that more funding was required before the biodiversity Cop16 the following year, whose location was still up in the air when Turkey announced it could no longer host because of the effects of recent earthquakes.
Read also: Robotyne Reclaimed: Ukraine Announces Successful Liberation from Russian Occupation
Source: The Guardian
