Scientists say there has been an alarming lack of progress in saving nature as the UN biodiversity summit, COP 16, draws to a close.
The scale of political ambition has not risen to the challenge of reducing the destruction of nature that costs the economy billions, said one leading expert.
Representatives of 196 countries have been meeting in Cali, Colombia, to agree on how to halt nature decline by 2030.
The biodiversity summit is separate from the more well-known COP climate summit, which is set to take place in Baku later this month.
Countries were meant to come to the table with a detailed plan on how they intended to meet biodiversity targets at home, but most missed the deadline.
However, plans were agreed to raise money for conservation through making companies pay for using genetic resources from nature.
The summit comes as one million species face extinction and nature is declining at rates unprecedented in human history.
We are stuck in a “vicious cycle where economic woes reduce political focus on the environment” while the destruction of nature costs the economy billions, said Tom Oliver, professor of biodiversity at the University of Reading.
“Until we have world leaders with the wisdom and courage to put nature as a top political priority then nature-related risks will continue to escalate,” he told BBC News.
The UN biodiversity summit, COP 16, was the first chance to take stock of progress towards a landmark deal to restore nature agreed in 2022.
However, scientists lamented the pace of progress. Nathalie Seddon, professor of biodiversity at the University of
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