Delegates applaud after Mexico made a "cris du coeur" for delegates to reach an agreement during the plenary for the tail end of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on Dec 19, 2022. (ANDREJ IVANOV / AFP)

MONTREAL - A UN deal aimed at reversing biodiversity loss and setting the world on a path of recovery has been adopted here early Monday at the UN biodiversity conference, COP15.

"The package has been adopted," Huang Runqiu, COP15 president and China's minister of ecology and environment, declared while striking his gavel. Loud cheers and applause from assembled delegates filled the conference room.

COP15, formally known as the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, is expected to conclude later on Monday after nearly two weeks of negotiation

COP15, formally known as the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, is expected to conclude later on Monday after nearly two weeks of negotiation. The deal is officially known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Stakeholders have agreed on key issues, including goals and targets, resource mobilization and Digital Sequence Information, or DSI, under the framework. The framework includes four goals and 23 targets for achievement by 2030.

It sets the target of raising international financial flows from developed to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing states and countries with economies in transition, to at least $20 billion per year by 2025, and to at least 30 billion dollars per year by 2030.

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It also calls for having restoration completed or underway on at least 30 percent of degraded terrestrial, inland waters, and coastal and marine ecosystems.

After four years of efforts, the process finally came to an end, Huang said, adding that the package will guide joint efforts of all parties to halt and reverse biodiversity loss so as to set the world on a path of recovery and benefit all human beings.

Describing the deal as historic, Huang said the framework has depicted the vision 2050 of "living in harmony with nature."

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China holds the presidency of COP15. It held the phase-one meeting in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, in 2021. The second phase of COP15 in Montreal, Canada, continued the theme of "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth.".