200 nations at Cop17 commit to biodiversity goals amid missed opportunities

Nearly 200 nations reached agreements at the UN biodiversity summit, but missed opportunities in addressing the adverse impact of human activities on nature. After intense debates and disagreements, crucial texts were approved in overtime on Friday. The Cop17 summit in Armenia aimed to revive a commitment to halt and reverse the destruction of nature by 2030, but progress was insufficient to meet the 2030 goals, including protecting 30% of land and oceans, addressing pollution and invasive species, and increasing funding for conservation.

French Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut lamented that the progress was a series of missed opportunities to accelerate responses to biodiversity loss, stating that "nature will not wait for the pace of our negotiations." The final plenary session stretched through Friday night and into the next morning, with technical points of contention persisting.

Towards the end, a draft agreement urged nations to accelerate efforts, albeit with weak terms, and acknowledged significant political momentum in addressing harmful financial incentives, such as subsidies for harmful activities like fossil fuels, intensive agriculture, and overfishing. The summit also grappled with scientific evidence being challenged or constrained by political interests, and tensions over finding new funding sources for conservation efforts, particularly from emerging economies.

The European Union pushed for wealthy emerging economies to contribute to global conservation efforts, and a draft text invited countries outside the developed world to voluntarily participate in the fund. However, key decisions on the design of the Cali Fund, a UN mechanism to attract corporate contributions, remained unresolved. Ecuador was selected to host the next biodiversity talks in 2028.