UN Secretary-General António Guterres used a leaders’ summit in Yerevan on Friday to press governments to speed up nature protection, a day after he launched the first global assessment of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. None of the framework’s 23 global targets presents a fully positive picture, and fewer than half of the national targets assessed by Parties are on track, the report found. The UN biodiversity conference, COP17, opens in the Armenian capital on Monday.
The findings matter beyond the environmental community. The framework is the main multilateral instrument on nature loss, and its 2030 deadline is now about four years away. Countries in Yerevan must decide how to close the gaps the report identifies, with finance the most contested item.
Background
COP17 is the first stocktake since nearly 200 countries adopted the Kunming-Montreal framework in 2022, a pact sometimes called the Paris Agreement for Nature. The framework’s headline goals include protecting 30 per cent of the world’s land, water and marine resources by 2030 and raising $200 billion a year for conservation.
COP17 runs from 19 to 30 October under the theme Taking Action for Nature. It will conduct the first Global Review of the framework, analysing the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans that countries have filed. Climate Home News described the review as a process comparable to the Global Stocktake for climate action, and the most important expected outcome of COP17.
What the assessment found
The State of Biodiversity Action report was prepared by technical experts for the Convention on Biological Diversity. It warned that the first set of national plans is insufficient to meet this decade’s global targets, including the goal of protecting 30 per cent of land and marine ecosystems. It identified gaps in financing and other means of implementation, in whole-of-government and whole-of-society action, and in the data needed to track progress.
The 30 per cent target is where the shortfall is clearest. According to a compilation of coverage by Newscord, Guterres said that if current commitments are met by 2030, only 26 per cent of land ecosystems and 12 per cent of marine ecosystems would be protected, falling “real short” of the target. The ocean figure is relevant to wider marine governance, where protected-area coverage is a recurring benchmark.
UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen struck a more mixed tone. In a statement on 15 October, she said the report shows biodiversity gains are emerging, but that faster climate-nature action, policy alignment and finance are crucial to meet the goals.
Subsidies and the finance gap
Speaking in Yerevan, Guterres singled out public spending that works against nature. According to AFP, he urged governments to end fossil fuel subsidies and redirect the savings towards people and the planet. AFP also reported that nations have made little headway since pledging in 2022 to cut public spending on activities that harm nature, such as mining, fossil fuel extraction and intensive farming. The UN estimates that for every dollar invested in protecting or restoring nature, about $30 still goes into activities that degrade it.
UN News reported that Guterres put the investment needed in nature-based solutions at $571 billion a year by 2030, about 0.5 per cent of global gross domestic product. He also called for private-sector participation, pointing to the UN-backed Cali Fund as a mechanism through which companies that benefit from nature can help finance its protection.
Analysts at the International Institute for Sustainable Development expect finance to dominate the talks. In their assessment, resource mobilization will probably be the most controversial item in Yerevan. They note that Target 19 calls for $200 billion a year from all sources, and that the world remains far from it. Earlier reporting on the run-up also pointed to a funding dispute between developed and developing countries, with the availability of finance, or lack of it, likely to be a key point of contention.
Political signals from the leaders’ summit
The summit closed with the adoption of the Yerevan Declaration: Taking Action for Nature. Its preamble acknowledges that the first global report shows collective efforts and progress remain insufficient, and that accelerated implementation is urgently needed. The text also calls for more public and private finance for biodiversity from all sources, with international partnerships to support developing countries, in particular least developed countries and small island developing States.
Armenia’s Environment Minister, Hambardzum Matevosyan, who is COP17 President, said the declaration would give political support to the negotiations. In his words, it should allow talks to proceed more smoothly. He described the gathering as the largest, most inclusive leaders’ summit yet held as part of a biodiversity COP. The declaration is a political statement, and it does not carry the weight of a negotiated COP decision.
The summit also produced private pledges. A new Species Recovery Donor Alliance of nine private donors, including the Bezos Earth Fund, pledged an additional $500 million by 2030 to support recovery of threatened species in more than 100 countries. A government-led Coalition of Action to Recover Endangered Species, with Armenia, Colombia and 14 other founding countries, was launched at the same time. The $500 million is a small fraction of the annual sums in the framework, which illustrates the scale of the gap that governments are being asked to close.
Civil society groups have framed the stakes sharply. WWF International’s Guido Broekhoven said repurposing subsidies must be “a matter of priority” at COP17. Greenpeace International’s An Lambrechts called for a clear course correction, adding that governments must move beyond restating promises.
Strategic implications
The timing adds pressure to a UN system already under strain. Guterres told leaders he has 76 days left in office, and his successor will inherit the follow-up to whatever COP17 decides. The conference also arrives as the UN seeks a leaner budget and warns of a liquidity crisis, which limits the organisation’s capacity to support implementation.
The main fault line is familiar from climate diplomacy. Developing countries want predictable, accessible finance and technology transfer. Developed countries are pointing to private capital, subsidy reform and new instruments such as the Cali Fund. How the Global Review links the shortfall in national plans to concrete financing commitments will indicate whether the 2030 targets remain credible.
What to watch
- 19 October: Formal opening of COP17 in Yerevan and the start of negotiations on the Global Review, which the Armenian presidency has made its central agenda item.
- Resource mobilization text: whether parties agree on a pathway toward the $200 billion annual goal, or defer the dispute on a possible new biodiversity fund.
- Subsidy reform: whether the final decision sets measurable steps for redirecting harmful subsidies.
- Cali Fund: the level of corporate contributions and the first steps to distribute money to developing countries and Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
- 30 October: the scheduled close of COP17 and the content of its decisions, including any request that countries submit stronger national plans.
Sources
- The world is waging a 'war on nature' as progress on biodiversity targets lags
- Guterres urges faster action and financing to stop biodiversity loss
- ED press statement, launch of the State of Biodiversity Report
- UN report warns global biodiversity action off track (China Daily Asia, Xinhua)
- UN Report Warns Global Biodiversity Action Off Track, Urges Implementation (Bernama)
- Countries urged to ramp up "insufficient" nature policies at COP17 (Climate Home News)
- UN chief says 'subsidising fossil fuels is subsidising suicide' (AFP via Free Malaysia Today)
- Report Says Developed Countries Fall Far Short Of COP17 Biodiversity Finance Targets (Newscord)
- COP17: Yerevan Declaration adopted following leaders' summit (Armenpress)
- Yerevan Declaration provides important political support for COP17 talks (Armenpress)
Top image: Vyacheslav Argenberg / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
This article was produced by the Intelligence Report Desk. Sources are linked below.
