Canada allocates 20 per cent of climate funding to tackle biodiversity loss

Canada’s Environment Minister says the federal government will allocate at least 20 per cent of its $5.3 billion international climate finance commitment to nature-based solutions in developing countries over the next five years in a bid to limit biodiversity loss.

Steven Guilbeault made the promise during a Saturday speech at the United Nations COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

He says a co-ordinated approach to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss is needed because the issues are intrinsically linked.

He says helping developing countries adopt “nature-based solutions,” such as restoring wetlands and and preserving carbon-rich natural areas, will help accomplish both goals.

The 14-day COP26 talks bring together leaders from more than 120 countries to finalize how they’ll meet the goals set in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

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Conference participants are grappling with setting the rules for implementing a number of goals, chiefly reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to hold global warming to as close to 1.5 degrees C as possible by the end of the century.

“We need to work together to conserve and protect the large intact biodiversity and carbon-rich areas of the world — the Boreal, Amazon, Congo Basin, and SouthEast Asia peatlands,” read a copy of Guilbeault’s address to the conference. “If we do not protect them, biodiversity will not be protected, nor will our climate.”