Nations have secured an agreement to halt and reverse environmental devastation by 2030 in a landmark deal at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal. The participating countries at the conference have agreed to four goals and 23 targets, according to a declaration published early Monday morning.

The UN biodiversity summit, known as COP15, laid out its goals, including safeguarding 30% of the world’s land, water, and marine resources by 2030, as well as mobilizing at least $200 billion in domestic and international biodiversity-related investment from all public and commercial sources by the end of the decade.

There is also a vow to cut environmentally detrimental subsidies by at least $500 billion by 2030, with rich countries committing to providing at least $20 billion per year by 2025, and $30 billion per year by 2030.

“Many of us wanted more things in the text and more ambition, but we got an ambitious package,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change. “We have an agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, to work on restoration, to reduce the use of pesticides. This is tremendous progress.”

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is named after the official host cities in China and Canada.

The final agreement came after nearly two weeks of deliberations among the 196 countries who are signatories to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. They were looking for a new agreement to stop human damage of nature and begin rebuilding what had already been destroyed.

One of the most controversial topics has been money, with delegates from 70 African, South American, and Asian countries walking out of negotiations on Wednesday. They came back some hours later.

Developed countries insisted on the 30 by 30 aim, while underdeveloped countries accused wealthier countries of establishing lofty goals without providing adequate funding to support them.

Scientists have warned that people are pushing the Earth past acceptable boundaries, with forests and grasslands disappearing at record rates and oceans under pressure from pollution. This includes an increased danger of diseases such as SARs CoV-2, Ebola, and HIV spreading from wild animals to human populations.

In an ironic fashion, the conference was moved from Beijing and postponed because of continuous COVID threats. China, which was in charge of the meeting, brought down the gavel on the agreement despite a last-minute opposition from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, saying his country couldn’t support the agreement because of concerns about funding.

However, a legal adviser from the UN Secretariat for Biodiversity said that because it was not a formal complaint, the deal could proceed.

The landmark deal was lauded by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Chief Scientist at BirdLife International Stuart Butchart also praised the biodiversity agreement but highlighted some language in the deal that he considers “vague.” Overall, he said that the summit’s goals “lack any 2030 milestones.”

“Goal A says ecosystem integrity must at least be maintained, effectively meaning no more loss of intact natural habitats but ‘substantially increasing the area of natural ecosystems by 2050’ is too vague,” he said in a twitter thread.

The other goals also “have language on sustainable use, ecosystem services, equitable sharing of benefits, and financing” which he deemed are “all okay but not very specific.”

“Remaining targets focus on other threats (unsustainable use, invasives, pollution, climate change), benefits from nature, tools & solutions. The vague language on companies’ disclosure of biodiversity risks/impacts is weak,” he added.

A copy of the landmark agreement can be accessed here.

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