COP17: The world has a plan to save nature. Is it working?
COP17, the UN Biodiversity Conference, comes at a critical halfway point in the global effort to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. Running 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.
Here’s what you need to know:
The big picture: Think of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework as 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.
As Secretary-General António Guterres told leaders in Yerevan on Friday: “Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability.”
Why it matters: COP17 is essentially about moving from promises to delivery.
Among the big issues governments will grapple with:
For host Armenia, success means COP17 becoming both a “review COP” and an “implementation COP”.
“We cannot treat 2030 as a distant deadline,” Ambassador Hovhannisyan told UN News. “Decisions taken in Yerevan must help close the gap between commitments and results on the ground.”
Hambardzum Matevosyan, Armenia’s Environment Minister and incoming COP17 president, puts the progression simply: COP15 produced the framework and COP16 advanced mechanisms to implement it. COP17, he said, must establish “where we stand, what is working, where progress is falling short and what must change”.
Biodiversity can sound abstract. Its loss is anything but.
As António Guterres reminded leaders on Friday, the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe depend on it. The question in Yerevan is whether countries can turn an ambitious global agreement into action quickly enough.
On Thursday, launching a major UN report evaluating global progress under the landmark Kunming framework, Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, distilled the challenge: “We know where we stand. We know where the gaps are. Now, we must work together to close them.”