Four years ago in Montreal, almost every government on Earth signed up to an ambitious plan to stop the destruction of nature by 2030. This fortnight, in the Armenian capital Yerevan, they have to show their homework. The UN Biodiversity Conference, COP17, was opened on Sunday by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and negotiators get down to work on Monday for talks lasting until 30 October.
The talks open the first official review of the so-called Kunming-Montreal framework. Agreed in 2022, it lays down 23 targets to be met by the end of this decade and four broader ambitions for mid-century. Its headline promise is to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and oceans by the end of the decade, but it also covers pollution, invasive species, harmful subsidies and the way companies depend on nature.
The early verdict is mixed. Close to nine in ten of the 196 countries and blocs in the treaty have written national targets, and the number of updated national action plans has roughly doubled within a year. Yet according to a UN assessment, less than 50 percent of the national goals examined so far are being met on schedule. On money, the gap is wider still: a milestone for public funding to poorer countries in 2025 was judged “likely not achieved”, and the goal of mobilising $200 billion a year remains far away. Who controls future funds is expected to be one of the hardest fights.
UN chief António Guterres called the gathering a moment of accountability at the halfway mark. Pashinyan, speaking as host, pointed to floods, wildfires and vanishing species as proof that people’s welfare cannot be separated from healthy ecosystems.
The United States is not part of the talks, because it never ratified the convention.
