The United Nations on Monday called for states to act more quickly to achieve the conservation targets set for 2030. At present, 17.6% of of the Earth’s lands and 8.4% of the planet’s waters are protected, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which on Monday presented the Protected Planet Report 2024 at the 16th UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia. The body said that states must act more quickly to achieve the goals set out in the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was agreed at the previous conference in Montreal in 2022. The framework, signed by some 200 …