The UN Biodiversity Conference kicks off today in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October. The meeting will take stock of progress, identify where countries are falling behind and, crucially, consider how to accelerate action over the next four years.
Key facts:
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is the world’s blueprint for halting and reversing the destruction of nature. Agreed in 2022, it contains 23 targets for 2030 and four longer-term goals for 2050. It tackles the main drivers of biodiversity loss, including changes in how land and seas are used, unsustainable exploitation of species, climate change, pollution and invasive species.
Its best-known ambition is “30 by 30”: conserving 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030, the deadline for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
But the framework goes much further, including financing for biodiversity, reforming harmful incentives, encouraging more sustainable production and consumption, and addressing businesses’ impacts and dependencies on nature.
Reality check: We’re not moving fast enough.
There has been movement. Nearly 90 per cent of the 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have established national biodiversity targets, close to 60 per cent have developed national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and more than 70 per cent have submitted national reports.
But fewer than half of the national targets assessed by parties are on track. Ambition also remains short of the 30-by-30 goal, while major gaps persist in finance, capacity, cooperation and the data needed to track progress.
To Secretary-General António Guterres, “Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability.”
According to WWF, governments should move from promises to delivery, which is the main focus of COP17. Under the framework, nations will conduct the first global assessment of collective progress, reviewing what has been accomplished since 2022 and identifying areas that require faster action. Closing the implementation gap: The question is how to convert national goals and plans into quantifiable outcomes on the ground.
According to Armenia’s UN Ambassador Paruyr Hovhannisyan, the framework calls for at least $200 billion annually from all sources by 2030, including at least $30 billion in international biodiversity finance.
Making the Cali Fund function: Governments will have the chance to develop workable plans for the fund that will enable just and equal benefit-sharing from the commercial exploitation of genetic resource digital sequence data. Monitoring progress: In order for nations to assess if their pledges are truly producing outcomes, improved monitoring, data, capability, and cooperation are required.
Changing the economics: Some of the most neglected areas, such as finance, business, sustainable consumption, and detrimental incentives, call for action outside the environment ministries.