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Analysis and Environment

COP15: Treaty may unravel over last-minute disputes and vague targets

A landmark biodiversity agreement was hammered out at the COP15 biodiversity summit over objections from some countries, but it may not live up to lofty expectations

By Madeleine Cuff

19 December 2022

Eve Bazaiba Masudi, Vice-Prime Minister and Environment Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Brazil Foreign Minister Leonardo Cleaver de Athayde, left, and Daniel Tumpal Sumurung Simanjuntak of Indonesia raises their arms following a discussion at the COP15 UN conference on biodiversity in Montreal — Ève Bazaiba (centre), the environment minister for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, raised last-minute objections to the COP15 agreement
Canadian Press/Shutterstock

A global pact agreed on by almost 200 countries in Canada this week has been hailed as a groundbreaking framework to transform humanity’s relationship with the natural world. But it may unravel due to disputes over how the treaty was finalised in a rush.

UN Secretary-General called the deal, which sets an overall ambition to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, a “peace pact with nature”.

But that ambition may have been made…

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