The United Nations had a tough year in 2024 with its environmental efforts. Four important meetings in different countries didn't achieve much. These meetings were supposed to bring countries, scientists, and other groups together to agree on how to protect the environment and find the money to do it. But they couldn't agree on many things.
Here's a simple explanation:
What were the meetings about? They covered important environmental issues like:
Protecting different types of plants and animals (biodiversity).
Fighting climate change.
Dealing with plastic pollution.
Why didn't they succeed?
Different priorities: Rich countries and poor countries have different ideas about what's most important. Poor countries want rich countries to give them a lot of money to help them deal with climate change. Rich countries are hesitant to spend more money because of problems at home.
Money problems: Poor countries asked for a lot of money ($1.3 trillion at one meeting), but rich countries didn't promise anything concrete.
Disagreements on rules: Countries couldn't agree on how to check if everyone is doing what they promised and how to hold them accountable.
Global problems: Problems like the COVID-19 pandemic, economic problems, and wars have made it harder for countries to focus on the environment.
What are the consequences? Not taking action now means:
Environmental problems like climate change and losing species will get worse.
It will be harder to solve these problems in the future.
Countries might start doing their own things instead of working together, which won't be as effective.
What needs to happen?
Rich countries need to give the money they promised to poor countries.
There need to be clear rules about how everyone will be held responsible.
All countries, including the poorest and most vulnerable, need to be included in the discussions.
It's important to focus on real actions and results, not just making promises.
Countries need to understand that all environmental problems are connected and need to be solved together.
In simple terms: The UN's efforts to solve global environmental problems hit roadblocks in 2024 because countries couldn't agree on important issues like money and rules. This delay makes it harder to protect the planet and requires countries to work together better in the future.