By David Stanway

KUNMING, China (Reuters). – On Sunday at the eve a fresh round of international biodiversity talks, a high ranking U.N. official declared that the global community should invest significantly more to increase the speed and scale of its commitments to preserve nature and avoid species loss.

On Monday, the first phase of twice-delayed “COP15” biodiversity negotiations will begin in Kunming, a city in southwest China. It aims to generate momentum for an ambitious post 2020 agreement that would reverse decades of habitat loss caused by climate change and human encroachment.

David Cooper, the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity’s deputy executive secretary, stated that virtual ministers this week must show greater ambition and provide “clear, political direction” for negotiators. They will be negotiating a final agreement in Kunming next May.

Environment groups claim there’s no time left to conserve habitats and reduce extinction rates. This is especially true after the failure of governments to meet any 2020 biodiversity targets set in Aichi (Japan) ten years ago. Cooper stated that the urgency is still too high.

He stated that countries currently spend an order of magnitude higher amount on activities that damage biodiversity than what they do to conserve it.

United Nations calls on countries to guarantee that 30% of their country’s land is protected by 2030. The pledge was already taken by the United States and other countries. China has yet to sign the agreement, even though it implemented an “ecological protective red line” system that protects 25% from development.

Cooper stated to reporters that while it was crucial that all countries protect their ecosystems more, that alone would not fix biodiversity loss. He said that more commitments are needed to address the remaining 70%.

While he acknowledged that biodiversity protection was now more urgent than ever, he warned that post-COVID-19 stimulation measures were still “business as usual”.

He said, “We need to ensure that (the stimulus), is strengthening biodiversity rather than adding to it.” Globally, stimulus packages make it more difficult than good to see the world.