‘HUGE MOMENT’

190 Countries Sign Landmark Agreement to Protect Nature

The historic deal to battle biodiversity loss includes a pledge to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and oceans.

An historic agreement to protect the natural world was approved by about 190 nations in Canada on Monday in a bid to stop the alarming loss of biodiversity. Among the 23 targets detailed in the United Nations agreement are a pledge to protect 30 percent of the planet’s oceans and land by 2030. “This is a huge moment for nature,” Brian O’Donnell, director of the Campaign for Nature coalition said of the agreement. “This is a scale of conservation that we haven’t seen ever attempted before.” The deal comes after two weeks of intense negotiations to approve the ambitious 30 percent target—known as “30x30”—along with other aims such as reforming $500 billion of subsidies which harm the natural world, like those given to fossil fuel industries, and a pledge to increase funding for biodiversity in developing nations.