This new Agreement enshrines the target of protecting 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (30by30) in international law, and commits richer countries to providing $30bn a year to help developing countries safeguard nature and wildlife. This agreement gives us hope for the future and can become the turning point for nature’s recovery.  

Progress at COP15 may have felt slow at times but, in its final hours, the conference set out a clear roadmap for halting and reversing the decline in nature and wildlife. Whilst the climate debate has focused on the Paris Agreement’s target to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees, there has not previously been a clear overarching target to encourage nature-focused action. We hope the new framework can capture the imagination of both the public and politicians, spurring on fast action for nature.  

The new Agreement ensures that government planning and accountability is embedded into the framework. For the first time, big businesses are strongly encouraged to report on how their actions impact and protect nature. With this, we hope that countries failing to play their part will be held to account before it is too late to change course.   

There are still important questions to be asked about how 30by30 will be defined and how to ensure that a range of ecosystems are protected under this target, using the best possible scientific evidence.

What does this mean for the UK? 

Countries will now need to reflect the new global deal in domestic policy as an outcome of COP15. Unfortunately, success in Montreal simply highlights the inadequacy of recent action on nature at home. UK negotiators may have been pushing for a global agreement to 30by30, but the UK Government’s own progress in meeting that target is poor – and the announcement of last week’s new Environment Act targets does little to suggest we will get back on track in time to meet it. 

Harry Barton, CEO Devon Wildlife Trust says:

“This is a huge boost for wildlife, and a welcome Christmas present from Montreal.  Commitments to protect nature on 30% of land and sea, halve our use of pesticides and help developing countries to meet their environment targets are all absolutely critical steps forward, and we’d have little chance of saving Earth’s biodiversity without them.  At long last World leaders are showing signs of taking the threats to our planet and vulnerable communities seriously.  Now we need our own government here in the UK to step up to the plate and do everything it can to make sure we deliver against these ambitions.”

Governments will need to update their national nature and wildlife strategies and action plans to align with the new Global Biodiversity Framework, yet the UK’s new targets, announced as part of the Environment Act will allow nature to flatline for the next 20 years. The Government has set its ambitions low in defiance of public opinion on river health, wildlife declines and protected sites for nature, and has proposed that by 2042, nature will be in a similar condition to our current depleted state.

The framework also includes a new commitment to reducing the risk from invasive species and pesticides by 50% by 2030, which will impact on new UK farming policies, whilst the target of restoring 30% of highly degraded ecosystems by 2030 means we need to speed up peatland restoration in the UK. Defra will also need to consider the commitment to ensuring nature-based solutions have ambitious but proper governance, including an increase in space for nature in cities and supporting nature’s role in combatting climate change.  

Currently, the UK is one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world, where almost one in 10 species are at risk of extinction. In England, our Government must match its rhetoric on the world stage with ambitious action to protect nature at home. That means revisiting the shockingly unambitious environmental targets announced last week and scrapping the dangerous ‘Bulldozer Bill’ (the Retained EU Law Bill), which could remove legal protections for wildlife and wild places.

We applaud negotiators in Montreal for reaching this landmark deal – now the work begins to turn ambition into action.