Draft UN deal on biodiversity calls for increasing aid for developing countries

A draft UN deal on biodiversity protection calls for increasing the international financial aid from developed countries to developing countries to at least $20 billion per annum by 2025 and to at least $30 billion per annum by 2030, according to documents released on Sunday.

The aid will go to the least developed countries and small island developing states, as well as countries with economies in transition.

The draft deal was tabled by China, which is chairing the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The deal includes 23 action-oriented targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030.

COP15 is scheduled to conclude on Monday with the adoption of a post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The draft text has been discussed over the last two days.

The document also asks that by 2030, at least 30 percent of degraded terrestrial, inland water and coastal and marine ecosystems be under effective restoration in order to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

It also calls for reducing the rates of introduction and establishment of other known or potentially invasive alien species by at least 50 percent by 2030 and eradicating or controlling invasive alien species in priority sites, such as islands.

(Xinhua News Agency)