New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS): India on Thursday officially joined the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, a group of more than 70 countries encouraging the adoption of the global goal to protect 30x30.

The 30x30 is the aim of the coalition to promote an international agreement to protect at least 30 per cent the of world's land and ocean by 2030.

India's announcement comes in the lead up to a high-level biodiversity meeting, hosted by China, to be held virtually from October 11 to 15. It will tackle key aspects of the biodiversity treaty to be finalised in 2022 and the global 30x30 goal is currently a centrepiece of the treaty.

Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Rameshwar Prasad Gupta, handed over the signed HAC agreement to Ambassador of France to India, Emmanuel Lenain in a ceremony here, a release from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) said.

HAC members currently include a mix of countries in the global north and south (south refers to the countries in Asia and African continent along with those in south/middle American continent), Europe, Latin America. India is the first of the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) to join the HAC.

Expressing delight on India joining member countries of HAC, Gupta said that resource mobilisation will always be the cornerstone for implementation of policies and programmes for conserving biodiversity and said India would ensure all support in meeting the global biodiversity targets.

Welcoming India's decision to join the HAC, which was initiated at the "One Planet Summit" in Paris in January 2021, Lenain said that on the eve of the opening of COP15, India joining the High Ambition Coalition is a real game changer and will boost our multilateral efforts.

"India is a major player for biodiversity protection," the French ambassador said.