Goodwill and compromise: Nagoya biodiversity deal restores faith in UN

Delegates in Nagoya, Japan, have reached an agreement to protect biodiversity

Goodwill and compromise: Nagoya biodiversity deal restores faith in UN

After the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks, a successful agreement to protect biodiversity has provided a timely morale booster 

In the long run, the biodiversity deal scratched out in Nagoya in the early hours of this morning is intended to benefit habitats and species such as tigers, pandas and whales. But in the short-term, the biggest beast to get a reprieve may well prove to be the UN itself. 

After the misery, disappointment and anger of last year's climate talks in Copenhagen, the body was fiercely criticised and the entire multilateral negotiating process called into question. It seemed time-consuming, prone to grandstanding and dominated by selfish national interests rather than pressing global concerns. 

At the start of this week, the talks in Nagoya looked likely to become another chapter in the same sorry story. But since then, there has been an impressive – and ultimately successful – willingness to work. 

Photograph: Nozomu Endo/AP