COP15 deal: Third of planet's biodiversity to be protected by 2030

Nearly 200 countries have agreed to protect a third of the planet by 2030 under a new deal.

The agreement happened at the COP15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada.

Nations signed the deal which pledges to look after the Earth's ecosystems, and at least 30% of the world's lands, costal areas and oceans will come under protection.

There will also be targets in place to protect important ecosystems such as rainforests and wetlands, and the rights of indigenous peoples.

The agreement to protect biodiversity

People had seen this conference as a "last chance" to help nature recover.

Over the past few days, some nations had disagreed on how it was going to fund these conservation efforts in the parts of the world where there is the most outstanding biodiversity.

There was also difference of opinions on the strength of the plans. During the talks, ministers gave emotional speeches about how they needed to agreed on clear goals to help nature recover.

Chinese delegates sealed the deal even though there was last minute objection from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Nature is our ship. We must ensure it stays afloat," said EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius.

The main points of the agreement are:

• Maintaining and restoring ecosystems, including stopping species extinction

• Halve global food waste by 2030

• Protect 30% of the world's lands, seas and coasts by 2030

• Making sure benefits of resources from nature, such as medicines that come from plants are split equally and fairly and that indigenous peoples rights are protected. Indigenous people are the first people to live in a place.

COP15

The conference was originally supposed to take place in China and had been postponed due to Covid. It was being held in Canada, but China was still in charge of the meeting.

The conference took place from 7 December to the 19 December, bringing together representatives from the 196 countries.

Not to be confused with the United Nation's climate change conference - COP27 - which took place in Egypt a few months ago, with the aim of reducing global temperatures.

The aim of the meetings was to decide how the world how the world will try to tackle the challenges of reducing the extinction risk of more than one million species, while protecting 30% of land and sea and repairing damaged ecosystems.

A key sticking point has been money - some countries were calling for a new fund to be set up to help preserve biodiversity, but this was rejected by others.

Reactions to the COP15 deal

The UN Development Programme said the "historic agreement" meant people around the world could hope for real progress to halt biodiversity loss.

Georgina Chandler, senior international policy advisor for the RSPB, said that people and nature should be better off because of the deal.

"Now it's done, governments, companies and communities need to figure out how they'll help make these commitments a reality."

Meanwhile Sue Lieberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society said the deal was good but could have gone further and done more, "to truly transform our relationship with nature and stop our destruction of ecosystems, habitats and species".