'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Environment ministers from around the world are gathering in Montreal for the last few days of a conference aimed at preserving what's left of the planet's biodiversity.
Talks at COP15 hit a speed bump early Wednesday when more than 60 nations from the global south walked out over concerns that pledges from rich countries to fund conservation were too small and too vague.
But there remains a chasm between wealthier nations and developing countries, with the former demanding a target to protect at least 30 per cent of the world's land and marine areas by 2030 and the latter demanding that the wealthiest countries come up with more cash to pay for it.
A framework won't happen unless both things are included, said Guilbeault.
"Those of us who want ambition, in the north, certainly need to understand that we need to be serious about resource mobilization, and those countries in the south who want resources to be mobilized need to understand that there won't be money unless there's ambition," he said.
The Montreal talks began Dec. 6 with country negotiators taking the lead, and government ministers arrived Thursday for a three-day "high-level segment" aimed at bringing the toughest issues to a consensus.
Guilbeault said the hope is that a compromise agreement will be ready by Sunday, a day before the meeting is supposed to end.
But the finance issue still looms large, as does the amount of money required.
Estimates suggest US$700 billion a year is needed to properly conserve nature. About $200 billion of that would come from contributions from governments, the private sector and charities, while the rest could be achieved by redirecting government subsidies that harm nature, such as those for fossil-fuel projects.
That is on top of the commitment to fund climate action and adaptation measures at US$100 billion a year.
Developed countries are adamant that they cannot fund it all.
"It's doable, but not just with public money," Guilbeault said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Developed countries are counting on private-sector financing and philanthropy to help bridge the gap, though Guilbeault acknowledged that the business case isn't as easy to make for conserving nature as it is for developing clean technology to help slow climate change.
Lord Zac Goldsmith, the British minister for international environment and climate, said Thursday that to put the size of the need into perspective, the annual total of all government aid for everything -- not just nature and climate -- is US$160 billion.
"So even if we quadrupled all global aid and put all of it into nature, we still wouldn't quite get there in terms of closing that gap," Goldsmith said.
Canada and the U.K. were among a group of developed nations that issued what they called a "donor statement" on Thursday, trying to prove they aren't falling down on financing commitments.
It lists a number of existing pledges -- including 7 billion euros from the European Commission between 2021 and 2017 -- and a handful of new ones made in Montreal.
Early last week, Canada said it will increase its global environment financing by another $350 million, specifically to help implement a biodiversity framework in developing countries. Japan said Thursday it will increase its biodiversity financing by 114 billion yen, the equivalent of about $1.2 billion, between 2023 and 2025.
The "joint donor statement" calls the commitments "a major breakthrough in addressing the twin challenges of climate change and nature loss as the world sees mass species extinctions and habitat loss accelerate at an alarming rate."
The money aside, there is also a disagreement about how any funds would actually be disbursed. Developed countries want a new biodiversity fund, because they say existing mechanisms are too slow. Wealthier nations do not want to create a new fund.
Virginijus Sinkevi-ìius, the European environment commissioner, said he knows the biggest need is to make finance flow more efficiently, but that doesn't have to require a new fund.
"What's very important is not to concentrate on new funds, which you know, the old problems are not going to be gone with them," he said. "We have to look at the innovative mechanisms, which can help African countries, Latin American, countries in Southeast Asia to have accessibility to funds sooner than they have now."
Destruction of nature has serious consequences for human health and prosperity, affecting everything from clean air and clean water to food security and economic growth.
The destruction of and human encroachment into wild ecosystems is also creating health risks due to animal-borne viruses, an issue many people are more acutely aware of as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2022.
-- Mia Rabson in Ottawa and Jacob Serebrin in Montreal.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.