The U.S., under new management, has taken a remarkable U-turn. Long recognized as the “leader of the free world,” it now seems to have switched sides and joined the autocracies, or at least President Putin’s autocracy. Toxic populism has infected the Republican Party.
The Americans, with their now belligerent approach toward their fellow democracies and their revival of manifest destiny, have joined Russia in pushing the West back toward the world of pre-WWI, a time when major powers made deals and fought wars over the heads of lesser nations. The latter’s welfare, even very existence, often hung in the balance. One result of this system was two world wars.
Largely to escape that sort of future, the international community, led by the West, has worked to create a more orderly world run by rules rather than by might is right. Particularly under the auspices of the United Nations, nations have not only attempted to achieve peace but have worked to solve global problems from poverty to climate change.
The U.S. has been a leader in this effort, but now appears to be opting out. Can we continue to progress without them? Judging by the success of a recent environmental meeting the answer is a resounding yes.
Last October in Colombia, United Nations’ COP16 talks on biodiversity failed to reach consensus on a fund to reverse the destruction of the natural world. At a resumption of the talks in Rome last week, delegates hammered out an agreement. The U.S. did not attend.
Governments agreed to raise at least $200 billion each year to better protect the world’s flora and fauna by 2030. Through days of intense negotiation, delegates reached decisions on finance, planning, monitoring, reporting and review, including a set of indicators to measure global and national progress.
The fund is a win for the world, and also a win for Canada. The deal is the result of a landmark agreement in Montreal in 2022 when countries agreed to protect 30 per cent of the world’s lands and oceans. Canadian negotiators, led by federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, got the agreement through complex and fraught negotiations involving 196 countries.
The recent Rome meeting saw the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—lead the negotiations. It is encouraging to see this leadership from Third World nations particularly from two of the world’s major autocracies.
And no progress is more important than on the environment if we are to have a sustainable future. Saving the world’s flora and fauna is key. Over a million species of plants and animals face extinction. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature’s 2024 Living Planet Report the average size of wildlife populations is down 73 per cent since 1970. The new fund is critical to reversing the trend.
Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said the positive outcome in Rome shows that “multilateralism works.” Heralding the agreement as a triumph for nature and for multilateralism at a time when the political landscape is increasingly fragmented and diplomatic frictions are growing, COP16 president Susana Muhamad reported, ”From Cali to Rome, we have sent a light of hope that still the common good, the environment and the protection of life and the capacity to come together for something bigger than the national interest is possible.”
Hopeful sentiments with which to confront those narrow populist world-views that threaten the very foundations and norms of the UN. The agreement provides a welcome boost for global deal-making and co-operation. The most important country wasn’t there but more than enough were. The global project continues.