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The world has an ambitious plan to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, but progress remains too slow, with countries facing major gaps in implementation, funding and monitoring as they gather in Armenia for the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP17.
Running from October 19 to 30 in Yerevan, the conference marks a critical halfway point in the global effort to meet the biodiversity targets agreed in 2022. Governments are expected to assess collective progress, identify shortcomings and determine how to accelerate action over the next four years.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an end to the “war on nature”, urging world leaders to match their commitments with practical measures to protect ecosystems and the species that sustain them.
The central question facing COP17 is whether countries can turn the global biodiversity agreement into measurable results quickly enough to meet the 2030 deadline.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, sets out 23 targets for 2030 and four long-term goals for 2050. It addresses the main drivers of biodiversity loss, including changes in land and sea use, overexploitation of species, climate change, pollution and invasive alien species.
One of its best-known commitments is the “30 by 30” target, which calls for conserving at least 30 per cent of the world’s land and sea areas by 2030.
The framework also seeks to mobilise finance for biodiversity, reform harmful incentives, promote sustainable production and consumption, and address the impacts of businesses on nature and their dependence on natural resources.
Despite progress in developing national plans, implementation remains uneven.
Nearly 90 per cent of the 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have established national biodiversity targets, while close to 60 per cent have developed national biodiversity strategies and action plans. More than 70 per cent have submitted national reports.
However, fewer than half of the national targets assessed by countries are on track, highlighting the gap between political commitments and action on the ground. Progress towards the 30-by-30 goal also remains insufficient, while shortages of finance, technical capacity, cooperation and reliable data continue to hamper implementation.
“Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability,” Guterres told leaders ahead of the conference.
A key task at COP17 will be the first global review of collective progress under the Kunming-Montreal framework. The assessment is expected to help governments identify areas where action has delivered results and where stronger measures are needed.
The review will also test whether national biodiversity strategies are translating into concrete improvements in the protection and restoration of ecosystems.
Finance is another major issue. The framework calls for mobilising at least US$200 billion annually from all sources for biodiversity by 2030, including at least US$30 billion a year in international biodiversity finance.
Developing countries, many of which contain globally significant ecosystems but face limited financial and technical resources, need greater support to implement their commitments.
Governments will also discuss arrangements for the Cali Fund, established to support fair and equitable benefit-sharing from the commercial use of digital sequence information on genetic resources. The issue has implications for countries whose biodiversity and genetic resources contribute to research, biotechnology and commercial products.
Improving monitoring systems, data collection and international cooperation will be essential to measuring progress and identifying where further action is required.
The conference will also need to address the economic forces driving biodiversity loss. Governments are being urged to look beyond environment ministries and consider the roles of finance, business, production, consumption and incentives that encourage environmentally harmful activities.
For host Armenia, the aim is to make COP17 both a review conference and an implementation conference, ensuring that the assessment of progress leads to stronger action.
“We cannot treat 2030 as a distant deadline,” Armenia’s UN Ambassador Paruyr Hovhannisyan said. “Decisions taken in Yerevan must help close the gap between commitments and results on the ground.”
Armenia’s Environment Minister and incoming COP17 president Hambardzum Matevosyan said the process had moved from establishing the framework at COP15 to advancing implementation mechanisms at COP16.
COP17 must now establish “where we stand, what is working, where progress is falling short and what must change”, he said.
The stakes extend far beyond conservation. Healthy ecosystems underpin food production, water security, public health and economic activity. The degradation of nature threatens the systems on which people and communities depend.
Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, summed up the challenge while launching a major UN report evaluating global progress under the framework.
“We know where we stand. We know where the gaps are. Now, we must work together to close them,” she said.
As governments meet in Yerevan, the challenge is no longer simply to agree on ambitious targets. It is to deliver the policies, financing and cooperation needed to protect nature before the 2030 deadline slips beyond reach. Source: UN News