Huang Runqiu and Steven Guilbeault

MONTREAL — Negotiators at a global conference on saving the world’s biodiversity were sharpening their focus on how to pay for it Tuesday, as environment ministers from around the globe converged in Montreal for the final week of COP15. “Resource mobilization is the key element here,” federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said through a translator. Attention at the meetings has been focused on the marquee target of preserving 30 per cent of the world’s land and water by 2030. But that ambition will depend on the resources — technology and capability, as well as money — that are devoted to it. Huang Runqiu, China’s environment minister and the conference’s chairman, suggested that finance tops the agenda as the conference enters its second phase. Staff with the environmental organization Climate Action Network inside the talks suggest that no deal will happen unless it’s accompanied by adequate resources.