30 BY 30
Other draft targets include a cornerstone pledge to protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and seas by 2030, reducing environmentally destructive subsidies, and how poor countries should be compensated for the exploitation of their natural resources, whose genetic information is stored in digital libraries.
“We must work together to promote harmonious coexistence between man and nature,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a video message that opened the high-level segment involving 200 ministerial-level delegates.
China is chairing the summit, known as COP15, but is not hosting because of its strict COVID-19 rules, leaving Canada to step in and hold the meeting in Montreal, one of North America’s coldest cities, in deep winter.
“A brilliant Canadian artist, Joni Mitchell, sent us a message in a song – that we have ‘Paved paradise and put up a parking lot,'” said Canada’s environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, who was nicknamed “Green Jesus” during his days as an activist.
“We listened to her music and sang along but didn’t really understand her message. We must live in harmony with nature, not try and dominate it,” he added.
Beyond the moral implications, there is the question of self-interest: US$44 trillion of economic value generation – more than half the world’s total GDP – is dependent on nature and its services.