28 October 2010 | Luca Del Buono

 

Hopes were raised for a positive outcome during the COP10 biodiversity summit in Nagoya Japan yesterday, when the host nation announced it would provide some US$2 billion to fund habitat conservation. There were also signs that negotiators were working out their differences and edging closer to agreeing on a comprehensive biodiversity reduction plan.

There were concerns the talks, which began on October 18th and will end tomorrow, would mirror the disappointment of COP15 in Copenhagen last year. Indeed, issues such as a proposed Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Protocol were proving detrimental to talks earlier in the week.

The ABS Protocol aims to determine exactly how companies gain access and distribute profits from resources and profits gathered in developing countries. If appointed, the protocol could have major repercussions for the global pharmaceutical company, which frequently draws on natural biodiversity found in developing nations to develop new drugs.

However, yesterday seemingly marked a considerable acceleration in the talks. Delegates have now reportedly managed to agree on 15 out of 20 conservation targets set within a strategic draft biodiversity plan.

The talks are revolving around three focal points: a comprehensive plan for global conservation, an agreement on funding and monitoring and a system by which the benefits of genetic resources can be regulated and shared.

Japan eased financial talks by pledging US$2 billion to developing nations over three years as a means of ensuring ecosystem management and sustainable resource use. This pledge represents a tenfold increase in Japan's previous biodiversity outlays. It remains unclear, however, how much money will be diverted from other aspects of the current aid budget.

In addition, Britain has allocated some £100 million for international forestry projects. The money, which will be channeled through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), comes from the £2.9 billion international climate finance budget that was protected during the recent spending review.

Less financially stable EU countries-such as Ireland, Greece and Spain-are less willing to commit to increased funding that go beyond the EU€1 billion which has been spent on biodiversity each year since 2002.

Britain's pledge was applauded by the European Commissioner for the environment, Janez Potocnik. He said, "Great Britain sets an example. If they can do it after cutting the budget by 30 per cent, then you can see we are serious about dealing with biodiversity."

Mr Potocnik continued to say developing nations could "expect more from Europe in the future" should a sufficiently ambitious and attainable action plan be put in place.

Unfortunately, despite generous financial pledges, delegates remain seemingly unable to agree upon a strategic conservation plan for the coming decade. Brazil is currently blocking the EU's aim of eliminating biodiversity loss by 2020 as they believe a more realistic target would be to initially reduce current levels by around 50 per cent.

In addition, India and China are continuing to block efforts to increase protected marine areas to 15 per cent of oceans. The resolution of this issue is subject to severe time constraints as delegates from these two developing nations will not arrive at the summit until its closing stages.

While distinct areas of uncertainty still remain, the financial progress spearheaded by Japan has provided a much-needed source of optimism and hope that some form of agreement can still be made in the late stages of the summit. Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, said,

"Overall, today was a very positive day. Japan's investment seems to have injected a lot of enthusiasm into the negotiations and now a final agreement is looking more likely."


Author: Tom Watts | Climate Action
Images: Trees for Cyprus & gsbene | Flickr

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