Nations cheered a last gasp deal reached Thursday to map out funding to protect nature, breaking a deadlock at United Nations talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions. Rich and developing countries worked out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous meeting in Cali, Colombia, last year. Delegates stood and clapped in an emotionally charged final meeting that saw key decisions adopted in the final minutes of the last day of rebooted negotiations at the U.
N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome. COP16 President Susana Muhamad of Colombia hailed the fact that countries worked together for a breakthrough, enabling progress "in this very fragmented and conflicted world," she said.
"This is something very beautiful because it's around protecting life that we have come together, and there cannot be anything higher than that," she said. The decision comes more than two years after a landmark deal to halt the destruction of nature this decade and protect the ecosystems and wildlife that humans rely on for food, climate regulation, and economic prosperity. One million species are threatened with extinction, while unsustainable farming and consumption destroy forests, deplete soils and spread plastic pollution to even the most remote areas of the planet.
The agreement on Thursday is seen as crucial to giv.
