The two-week Cop17 summit concluded with delegates pledging to accelerate progress on nature targets established four years ago, including reforming $500bn in harmful subsidies. However, major divisions persisted as nations like Argentina, Saudi Arabia, and Russia weakened language on environmental ambition, while the UK is tracking toward fulfilling only three of 23 targets. Crucial decisions on a mechanism to collect conservation revenue from companies utilizing digital biodiversity were delayed until the upcoming summit in Ecuador. That initiative aimed to raise £1bn each year for nature and Indigenous groups, but it has secured barely over $10,000 so far.
Key points
Calls for structural overhauls are mounting because the consensus-based format allows dis…: Calls for structural overhauls are mounting because the consensus-based format allows dissenting countries to continually weaken environmental ambition.
Proposed reforms include shifting to a majority voting system and combining biodiversity,…: Proposed reforms include shifting to a majority voting system and combining biodiversity, climate, and plastic negotiations into one annual summit.
Nations remain far behind on global conservation milestones despite thirty-four years of…: Nations remain far behind on global conservation milestones despite thirty-four years of convention meetings failing to meet targets.
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Calls are growing for major reforms to UN biodiversity summits as countries fail to deliver on their promises to halt the destruction of the natural world, with governments likely on track to continue their record of never having met a target in the 34-year history of the convention.
Two weeks of negotiations at biodiversity Cop17 in Yerevan, Armenia, concluded on Saturday morning with countries vowing to redouble their efforts to meeting this decade’s targets, which include commitments to protect 30% of the planet for nature, restore nearly a third of Earth’s degraded ecosystems and reform $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies.
Agreed just four years by nearly every government on Earth, they aim to transform humanity’s relationship with nature. Despite progress in some areas, governments are way off track on meeting almost all of the targets. The UK is set to meet just three of the 23.
After talks that ran overnight from Friday into Saturday morning, countries signed off several measures, including a commitment to ramp up action on meeting existing targets and reaffirming a goal to increase biodiversity…
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