Canada led a 2022 deal to protect the world's nature.
asserted
Canada → lead → nature
New report looks at progress since 2022 deal
During a snowy Montreal winter in 2022, Canada welcomed over 180 UN member countries to negotiate an ambitious new agreement to protect nature.
asserted
Canada → look → nature
The world’s biodiversity was in an unprecedented crisis — with more than one million species facing the threat of extinction, leaders were finally waking up to how close ecosystems were to collapsing.
asserted
ecosystems → face → extinction
Steven Guilbeault, then-minister of environment, helped wrangle a consensus and establish a new goal of protecting 30 per cent of global land and oceans by 2030, meant to halt the mass extinction.
asserted
Guilbeault → help → extinction
These spaces would be protected for the long-term goal of conservation, with human activities like fishing and mining banned or heavily restricted.
asserted
activities → protect → fishing
The agreement also included a promise to help lower-income countries with funding: money to establish and manage these protected spaces.
asserted
agreement → include → spaces
“That was the compromise in Montreal,” said Guilbeault, while on his way back from Climate Week NYC, held alongside the UN General Assembly to bring together climate advocates and policymakers.
asserted
Guilbeault → say → advocates
“Those people who wanted more ambition had to agree to commit to more funding, and those who wanted more funding had to agree to more ambition.
asserted
who → want → ambition
But that funding is now the main roadblock in reaching the goals of the Montreal agreement.
asserted
funding → reach → agreement
A new assessment report released in New York this week projected that, based on commitments made so far, just 27 per cent of lands and only 12 per cent of oceans will be protected by 2030.
asserted
cent → release → 2030
“We have a reasonable shot of reaching our terrestrial targets.
asserted
We → have → targets
We won't be at 30 per cent [but] we'll be close to it,” said Guibeault, who resigned as an MP earlier this year because of the Carney's government's climate rollbacks.
asserted
who → say → rollbacks
“That's certainly something that should give us comfort.
asserted
that → give → comfort
But on oceans protection, there is a lot more work that needs to be done.”
asserted
that → be → protection
The assessment also comes as Canada, the country where the 2022 deal was made, has shifted its priorities toward fast-tracking resource projects, putting it behind on its own climate targets.
asserted
deal → come → targets
Rich countries need to put up more money: report
Speeding up nature protection and reaching goals will primarily involve increasing funding, according to the assessment, led by international advocacy groups Campaign for Nature and Together for the Ocean.
uncertain
Speeding → need → Ocean
The Montreal agreement included a target of $30 billion US per year in international financing for biodiversity conservation in developing nations, of which about $6 billion US of that target is needed specifically to establish protected areas on land and in the oceans.
asserted
US → include → oceans
But international finance has only reached $1.1 billion US per year, it said.
asserted
it → reach → year
This money is supposed to flow from higher-income countries like Canada and Japan to developing ones, meant to create parks and conserved areas, pay for programs like park rangers and support communities and institutions in those regions.
asserted
money → suppose → regions
“More money is flowing to countries in the Global South than before, but it's still not enough," Guilbeault said.
asserted
Guilbeault → flow → South
The report also said most of the funding is coming from just five major sources: the World Bank; the European Union; Germany; the Global Environment Facility, a multilateral development fund; and the non-profit Rainforest Trust.
asserted
most → say → sources
The report warned that changes by even one of these funders could jeopardize the total amount.
uncertain
changes → warn → amount
Still, it also highlighted successes: More than 50 countries already report terrestrial coverage of at least 30 per cent.
asserted
countries → highlight → cent
To date, 20 per cent of lands and 10 per cent of oceans have been protected.
asserted
cent → protect → oceans
This week, Canada ratified the High Seas Treaty, a new global agreement to regulate the oceans and seas currently outside of national jurisdictions.
asserted
Canada → ratify → jurisdictions
With the majority of world nations now signed on, experts say it will be easier to designate large areas of ocean as protected.
asserted
it → sign → ocean
Oceans protection gets a boost
asserted
protection → get → boost
Until now, 101 countries have ratified the High Seas Treaty.
asserted
countries → ratify → Treaty
Opened to signatures in 2023, it forms a new kind of international law to govern the oceans, such as new mechanisms to propose conserved areas, to fight climate change and to safeguard marine resources like fisheries that support billions of people.
asserted
that → open → people
The treaty has officially come into force last January and its first gathering is set for January 2027.
asserted
gathering → come → January
Canada is leading in ocean protection, as well, by hosting the Our Ocean Conference in Halifax in April.
asserted
Canada → lead → April
Prime Minister Mark Carney also committed $82 million toward monitoring the ocean — especially in the fast-changing Arctic — and named his wife, Diana Fox Carney, as Canada’s ocean envoy.
asserted
Carney → commit → envoy
Sien Van den broeke, a campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, says the Halifax conference will be a place for countries to showcase commitments they’re making on oceans protection.
asserted
they → say → protection
She expects Canada will make some promises of its own, too.
asserted
Canada → expect → own
With the new global treaty, Canada could also support new protection proposals off its vast coastlines.
uncertain
Canada → support → coastlines
Van den broeke pointed to the Emperor Seamounts, a biodiversity hotspot in the northern Pacific, and the Sargasso Sea, another important ecosystem in the Atlantic, as potential areas the country could champion.
uncertain
country → point → areas
But advocates are also watching nervously as the Carney government has weakened environmental rules back at home, as part of the prime minister's agenda to build major new infrastructure and resource projects amid the ongoing trade conflict with the U.S.
In an unprecedented warning, leading climate think-tank says Canada won't meet 2030 climate target
asserted
Canada → watch → target
Carney says Trudeau-era climate plan was 'too expensive' and 'divisive'
Canada has protected about 14 per cent of its lands and 15.5 per cent of its oceans, according to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).
uncertain
Canada → say → Society
Its president, Sandra Schwartz, said that protecting nature is more than just hitting numerical targets.
asserted
protecting → say → targets
“Nature really is quite foundational to our way of life and to our long-term success,” she said.
asserted
she → say → success
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
