Nearly 200 countries participating in the UN Biodiversity Conference "COP17" in the Armenian capital Yerevan have agreed on two main texts aimed at putting international efforts to protect nature back on track.
The two texts were adopted during the conference's closing session held on the night of Friday into Saturday, following two weeks of intensive negotiations that revealed ongoing disagreements regarding funding, harmful subsidies, and mechanisms for implementing commitments.
Stalled environmental goals
The first text concerns the global assessment of the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Agreement signed in 2022, which includes 23 goals to be achieved by 2030, the most prominent of which are protecting 30 percent of land and oceans, combating pollution, and restoring degraded ecosystems.
The assessment aims to push countries to accelerate the implementation of these commitments, given that most goals are lagging behind the set path for their achievement. The negotiations also addressed subsidies and financial incentives provided to activities that harm nature, particularly oil exploration and extraction.
Funding sparks disputes
The second text focused on financing biodiversity protection and identifying which entities should bear the costs of implementing the 2030 financial goals, amid disagreements over expanding the list of donor countries, which has not been updated since 2006.
The European Union sought to persuade major economies, particularly China, to join the list, while a draft resolution proposed allowing countries to be included voluntarily. Efforts to activate the "Kali Fund" also faced difficulties, with key decisions regarding its operational mechanism postponed to 2028.
Implementation challenges
The conference witnessed disagreements regarding reliance on scientific data in formulating environmental policies. French Minister for Ecological Transition Monique Barbu considered that the results did not meet the level of challenges, despite welcoming the consensus on the two texts.
The conference comes within the framework of implementing the Kunming-Montreal Agreement, which constitutes the main global framework for biodiversity protection until 2030. Participants designated Ecuador to host the next session of the Conference of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention in 2028.
The UN Environment Programme had previously announced in a report titled "State of Nature Finance 2026" released last January that "for every dollar invested in protecting nature, 30 dollars are spent on destroying it."
Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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