- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
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- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Odegaard injury has forced Arsenal to be 'different', says Arteta
- Ratcliffe refuses to guarantee Ten Hag's Man Utd future
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Mauritius to hold legislative election on November 10
- Britain qualify for America's Cup final after 60-year wait
- IMF asks Sri Lanka to protect hard-won gains
- Morata returns to Spain Nations League squad after injury
- Irish regulator to probe Ryanair use of facial recognition
- Public allowed to see video evidence in France mass rape trial
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- Under-fire Ten Hag 'together' with Man Utd hierarchy
- Guardiola talks of Man City love affair as financial hearing rumbles on
Will big biodiversity ambitions be enough to save nature?
After the world missed almost all of its targets to protect fast-dwindling nature for the last decade, observers following a new round of negotiations are focusing as much on how goals will be put in place as the headline targets.
Nearly 200 nations are taking part in talks until Tuesday, aimed at fine-tuning a draft text to preserve biodiversity by 2050, with key milestones at 2030, which will be adopted at the United Nations COP15 conference later this year.
Countries are striving to increase their ambitions in the face of stark warnings that humanity is driving devastating declines in the biodiversity that supports all life on the planet.
But the world failed almost entirely to reach a similar set of 10-year objectives set a decade ago at UN talks in Aichi, Japan.
"The Aichi targets were largely missed because of lack of political will and parties not prioritising them enough," said AFP Anna Heslop, of the NGO ClientEarth, which is following the Geneva talks.
"There was just a lack of implementation. We can't afford to be in that position again in 10 years."
The text under negotiation includes a series of proposals to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
"What we need is a better system for encouraging parties to plan and report, and then the global community needs to do something. It is keeping these three elements is the challenge," said a delegate from a Global North country, who asked not to be named.
- Progress reports -
Member countries should develop stronger action plans to use natural resources sustainably, said the IDDRI think tank said to be more effective.
There should also be a more robust reporting system, with countries periodically measuring progress and passing on data that feeds into a global assessment, it added.
Currently, each country draws up its national biodiversity plan on a different basis, making comparisons difficult.
To address this, the delegations in Geneva are trying to develop common indicators to measure progress.
"Let's put in place mechanisms for collective and individual review, which will increase the pressure and this affects ambitions and implementation at the national level," said Juliette Landry, researcher at IDDRI.
Experts and conservation groups want national action plans to be updated regularly after COP15 with progress reports and a global stocktake before 2030.
That way, nations and the international community can see if they are going off track and increase their efforts.
But more reporting and administration requires more funding, and biodiversity-rich developing countries stress they will need both financial and technological support to meet these obligations.
"You cannot ask people to do spatial planning if they don't have the means," said a delegate from the Global South.
Another IDDRI proposal is the creation of a compliance mechanism, although Landry stressed that this would not be an exercise in finger-pointing.
Instead she said it would show the "gaps between what the countries had planned and what they implemented" and enable problems to be addressed and for countries to share their experiences, she said. So far, there has been little appetite for such a mechanism.
But without one "all of this process is meaningless" said Oscar Soria, of the advocacy group Avaaz.
"Because nobody will take responsibility and nobody will take the convention seriously from the outside," he said.
F.Ferraz--PC