Will nature have its own Paris Agreement?

Nature is dying out at an unparalleled rate.

But the loss of biodiversity is often overshadowed by climate change - even though the issue is just as important for the planet's future.

And there is no time to lose.

Up to one million of the world's plant and animal species are threatened with extinction due to environmental degradation, the spread of invasive species and climate change.

The extinction is faster than it has been for the last ten million years.

Nature's Paris Agreement

The hope is that this will change through an international agreement that could have the same significance for the work of saving the biological diversity that the Paris Agreement has had for the climate.

With only a few weeks left until the important climate conference COP26 in Scotland, another UN summit will therefore be held - but in Kunming, China.

A moment of truth

The world is facing the "moment of truth" when it comes to the protection of important ecosystems, said the UN Head of Biodiversity, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, when COP15 began on Monday.

The digital meeting is a first step in the work of developing new global goals for how much nature is to be protected and how it is to be financed.

However, some details are not expected to be nailed down until April-May next year, when the second part of the pandemic postponed UN meeting will be held - then in physical form.

The forthcoming framework will include a number of milestones and measures to halt the rapid loss of species.

The discussion is based on a proposal that 30 percent of land and sea areas must be protected in a meaningful way - something that several countries agree on.

However, China has not given its express support.

"Must change"

However, some experts believe that a global framework for biodiversity is unlikely to have the same weight as the Paris Agreement.

And so political will and money are needed to protect nature.

"Currently, most countries are spending more on subsidizing activities that destroy biodiversity than on preserving it," David Cooper, deputy secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said at a briefing ahead of the meeting.

-It needs to change.