Four years after the promises of Cop15, our biodiversity targets are slipping away
Listen to Course
0:00
0:00
EN: The conjunction 'as' is used here to indicate a temporal and circumstantial relationship, equivalent to 'at the same time that' or 'in the context of'. It introduces a subordinate clause setting the background scene for the main clause.
As world leaders arrived for the economic forum, public anxiety over inflation reached a new high.
EN: The present perfect passive construction 'have rarely been so [adjective]' uses the frequency adverb 'rarely' between the auxiliary and the past participle to emphasize historical rarity or an unprecedented degree of a state up to the present moment.
Investor confidence in the tech sector has rarely been so volatile.
EN: COP stands for 'Conference of the Parties' under UN environmental conventions. While COP is often associated in public media with climate change summits (e.g., COP28 in Dubai), there are separate COPs for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Here, COP17 refers specifically to the biodiversity treaty meeting, distinct from the climate framework.
EN: The nominal relative pronoun 'what' introduces a free relative clause (fused relative construction) acting as the direct object of the transitive verb 'struck'. In this structure, 'what' functions simultaneously as both the antecedent and the relative pronoun (equivalent to 'that which' or 'the thing that').
The committee approved what was described as an unprecedented stimulus package.
EN: The collocation 'strike an agreement/deal' uses the past form 'struck' to express formal consensus or treaty formation. The passive construction 'was hailed as' conveys collective, public recognition or praise by external observers.
Diplomats finally struck a compromise after days of contentious debate.
EN: The infinitive clause 'to halt the destruction...' functions as an adjectival post-modifier specifying the intended purpose, scope, or mandate of the noun 'agreement'.
World leaders signed a pledge to reduce methane emissions significantly by 2030.
EN: This refers to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in December 2022 at COP15. It is widely considered the biodiversity equivalent of the 2015 Paris Agreement for climate change, famous for the '30x30' pledge (protecting 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030).
EN: The verb 'pledge' is followed by a to-infinitive complement ('pledged to protect...'). In a coordinated structure with multiple non-finite verbs sharing the same infinitive marker, the marker 'to' is typically expressed before the first verb ('to protect') and omitted (ellipsed) before subsequent parallel verbs ('restore', 'and tackle') for stylistic conciseness and balance.
The coalition vowed to reduce carbon emissions, transition toward renewable energy, and phase out fossil fuels entirely.
EN: Hyphenated compound modifiers (such as '23-point' and 'environmentally damaging') serve distinct syntactical functions. '23-point' uses a cardinal number combined with a singular count noun as a prenominal adjective (never pluralized, e.g., not *23-points deal*). Meanwhile, 'environmentally damaging' illustrates an adverb-participle compound modifier, where an '-ly' adverb modifies a present participle acting adjectivally.
The 10-year project involves technologically advanced solutions to combat soil erosion.
EN: This sentence outlines the core pillars of the landmark 'Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework' adopted at COP15 in 2022. The goal to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 is widely known in international environmental diplomacy as the '30x30 target'. Additionally, identifying and redirecting environmentally harmful government subsidies (such as those for fossil fuels, intensive agriculture, and overfishing) represents one of the most contentious economic battles in global conservation policy.
EN: The absolute structure 'with + noun phrase + participle (-ing / -ed)' is used to add supplementary circumstances, background information, or attendant details to the main clause. Here, 'with the United States and the Vatican standing...' acts as an adverbial adjunct providing a qualifying contrast.
All the participants approved the resolution, with several delegates raising minor concerns about the timeline.
EN: The verb 'stand as' is an intransitive, copula-like expression meaning 'to be' or 'to act as', emphasizing status, role, or symbolic position. It elevates the register from everyday verbs like 'be' or 'remain' to formal journalistic or academic prose.
The ancient cathedral stands as a testament to the city's architectural resilience.
EN: Under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United States is uniquely isolated among major powers: although President Bill Clinton signed the treaty in 1993, the US Senate never ratified it due to sovereignty and intellectual property concerns. The Holy See (the Vatican) is a permanent observer state to the UN and typically does not become a party to technical multilateral environmental treaties, hence both remaining the sole non-parties to global biodiversity targets.
EN: Negative inversion occurs when a sentence begins with a negative or restrictive adverbial phrase such as 'Never before', triggering subject-auxiliary inversion ('had governments met' instead of 'governments had met'). This structure creates dramatic emphasis and is typical of formal, journalistic, or literary registers.
Rarely had the committee faced such fierce opposition from the public.
EN: The past perfect tense ('had made') is used within a content clause following 'hoped' (backshifted past tense) to indicate an event or transformation that was perceived to have occurred prior to, or led up to, the point of hoping.
Analysts hoped the new policy had resolved the underlying market volatility.
EN: The causative structure 'make + object + adjective' ('made this attempt genuinely different') expresses causing an object to be in a particular state, where 'genuinely' functions as an adverb modifying the predicative adjective 'different'.
Technological advancements have made renewable energy economically viable.
EN: In international environmental diplomacy, 'self-imposed targets' refer to voluntary pledges nations make (such as the 2010 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, none of which were fully met globally). The reference to the Covid-19 pandemic highlights a widespread sentiment in 2020–2022 that the global health crisis, widely linked to human encroachment on natural habitats, would serve as a transformative wake-up call for planetary conservation.
EN: The phrase 'fall short' is an idiomatic verb phrase meaning to fail to reach an expected standard or goal. Here, it is modified by the adverb 'considerably' (placed between the auxiliary and the adjective/particle or before short) and conjugated in the present perfect tense ('has fallen considerably short') to indicate an ongoing deficiency from a past point up to now.
The company's quarterly revenue has fallen considerably short of analyst projections.
EN: The participial phrase 'raising urgent questions...' functions as a non-finite adverbial clause of result or attendant circumstance, modifying the main clause. It indicates that the inadequacy of action naturally brings about serious doubts.
The bridge collapsed during the storm, raising serious doubts about the quality of construction.
EN: The preposition 'about' introduces a noun clause headed by the conjunction 'whether' ('whether such global commitments... can ever be honoured'). This structure embeds an indirect question, exploring the feasibility of commitments being fulfilled, with 'ever' intensifying the skepticism.
There is a heated debate about whether these ambitious emissions targets can ever be achieved.
EN: In international diplomacy and environmental governance, verbs like 'honour' (British spelling used in this text; US: 'honor') specifically mean to faithfully carry out or fulfill legal, moral, or treaty-based commitments. High-profile international agreements (such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework from COP15) often face skepticism because they lack binding enforcement mechanisms, frequently leading to critique that implementation 'falls short'.
Key vocabulary words with IPA pronunciation, definitions, example sentences, and interactive quizzes.
Phrases with type tags, bilingual definitions, usage notes, and example sentences.
To successfully negotiate and establish a formal deal or treaty
To fail to reach the required or expected standard, amount, or goal
The worldwide or local decline in the variety and abundance of plant and animal species and ecosystems