A successful biodiversity framework to halt the devastation of global ecosystems and wildlife will require compromise from the world’s wealthy and developing nations both, Canada’s environment minister said Thursday.
Steven Guilbeault is helping guide international nature talks toward a conclusion, with Canada hosting the COP15 in Montreal despite China remaining the president and chief architect of the summit.
After negotiations temporarily stopped Wednesday amid an impasse over how a resulting framework would be funded, they resumed Wednesday evening and Guilbeault said he is feeling confident that progress is now underway.
But there remains a chasm between wealthier nations and developing countries, with the former demanding a target to protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s land and marine areas by 2030 and the latter demanding that the wealthiest countries come up with more cash to pay for it.
A framework won’t happen unless both things are included, said Guilbeault.
“Those of us who want ambition, in the north, certainly need to understand that we need to be serious about resource mobilization, and those countries in the south who want resources to be mobilized need to understand that there won’t be money unless there’s ambition,” he said.
The Montreal talks began Dec. 6 with country negotiators taking the lead, and government ministers arrived Thursday for a three-day “high-level segment” aimed at bringing the toughest issues to a consensus.
Guilbeault said the hope is that a compromise agreement will be ready by Sunday, a day before the meeting is supposed to end.
But the finance issue still looms large, as does the amount of money required.
Estimates suggest US$700 billion a year is needed to properly conserve nature. About $200 billion of that would come from contributions from governments, the private sector and charities, while the rest could be achieved by redirecting government subsidies that harm nature, such as those for fossil-fuel projects.
That is on top of the commitment to fund climate action and adaptation measures at US$100 billion a year.
Developed countries are adamant that they cannot fund it all.
“It’s doable, but not just with public money,” Guilbeault said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Developed countries are counting on private-sector financing and philanthropy to help bridge the gap, though Guilbeault acknowledged that the business case isn’t as easy to make for conserving nature as it is for developing clean technology to help slow climate change.
Lord Zac Goldsmith, the British minister for international environment and climate, said Thursday that to put the size of the need into perspective, the annual total of all government aid for everything — not just nature and climate — is US$160 billion.
“So even if we quadrupled all global aid and put all of it into nature, we still wouldn’t quite get there in terms of closing that gap,” Goldsmith said.
Canada and the U.K. were among a group of developed nations that issued what they called a “donor statement” on Thursday, trying to prove they aren’t falling down on financing commitments.
It lists a number of existing pledges — including 7 billion euros from the European Commission between 2021 and 2017 — and a handful of new ones made in Montreal.
Early last week, Canada said it will increase its global environment financing by another $350 million, specifically to help implement a biodiversity framework in developing countries. Japan said Thursday it will increase its biodiversity financing by 114 billion yen, the equivalent of about $1.2 billion, between 2023 and 2025.
The “joint donor statement” calls the commitments “a major breakthrough in addressing the twin challenges of climate change and nature loss as the world sees mass species extinctions and habitat loss accelerate at an alarming rate.”
The money aside, there is also a disagreement about how any funds would actually be disbursed. Developed countries want a new biodiversity fund, because they say existing mechanisms are too slow. Wealthier nations do not want to create a new fund.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, the European environment commissioner, said he knows the biggest need is to make finance flow more efficiently, but that doesn’t have to require a new fund.
“What’s very important is not to concentrate on new funds, which you know, the old problems are not going to be gone with them,” he said. “We have to look at the innovative mechanisms, which can help African countries, Latin American, countries in Southeast Asia to have accessibility to funds sooner than they have now.”
Destruction of nature has serious consequences for human health and prosperity, affecting everything from clean air and clean water to food security and economic growth.
The destruction of and human encroachment into wild ecosystems is also creating health risks due to animal-borne viruses, an issue many people are more acutely aware of as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2022.
— Mia Rabson in Ottawa and Jacob Serebrin in Montreal.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
