Delegates at the COP15 in Montreal signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in the early hours of Monday — though not without dissenting voices, reports the Guardian. The once-in-a-decade agreement, which was signed by some 196 countries, has been four years in the making and vows to protect 30% of the planet’s oceans and lands by 2030 under the tagline 30×30.

The talks have been led by Canada and China: China, which has been leading the talks at COP15, presented a compromise package on Sunday. The package included a draft Global Biodiversity Framework, a draft strategy on resource mobilization for nature conservation finance, frameworks for monitoring and reporting that allow countries to track their progress, and finally, measures to enhance capacity building, development, and technical and scientific cooperation.

What does the Montreal-Kunming pact include? The agreement, which replaces the 2010 Aichi Biodiversity Targets that emerged from COP10 in Nagoya, Japan, includes 23 targets. The agreement proposes the elimination, phasing out, or reform of environmentally harmful subsidies by a minimum of USD 500 bn each year by 2030 and would see wealthy countries increasing their contributions to aid for biodiversity. It also requests, but does not require, that large companies and financial institutions make disclosures about their operations, supply chains and portfolios, reports Reuters.

Finance remains a sticking point: While the agreement would see wealthy countries increasing their contributions to aid for biodiversity to USD 25 bn annually starting 2025 and USD 30 bn annually by 2030, it falls short of an earlier proposal that saw developed countries committing at least USD 100 bn annually until 2030. It also directs countries to allocate USD 200 bn annually for public and private sector biodiversity initiatives.

Calls for a new biodiversity fund were shut down: Rather than set up an entirely new fund to protect biodiversity, which has been a repeated request of countries from the global south, including Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the pact sees the creation of a biodiversity fund under the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) — a conclusion that outraged many African delegates, with one representative saying that “the agreement was passed by force of hand,” reported the Guardian. Earlier this week, talks stalled after delegates failed to reach a consensus on biodiversity funding.

What is not included in the proposal? The package excludes the EU’s proposal to restore 3 bn hectares of degraded land and freshwater ecosystems and 3 bn hectares of ocean ecosystems, as well as the bloc’s proposal to halve pesticide use and risk. The agreement lacks mention of “nature positive,” or means to halt or reverse nature loss — the biodiversity equivalent of “net zero.”