Calls are growing for major reforms to UN biodiversity summits as countries fail to deliver on their promises to halt the destruction of the natural world. Governments are likely on track to extend their record of never having met a target in the 34-year history of the convention.
Two weeks of negotiations at the biodiversity conference, known as Cop17, concluded on Saturday morning in Yerevan, Armenia. Countries vowed to redouble their efforts to meet this decade's targets. Those goals include commitments to protect 30 per cent of the planet for nature, restore nearly a third of Earth's degraded ecosystems, and reform $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies. The summit was focused on protecting nature and restoring ecosystems, and the subsidy commitment is among the most closely watched because such payments can drive habitat loss in farming, fishing, energy and infrastructure.
Critics say the summit's structure is part of the problem. Its decisions are reached by consensus, which means a single country can stall progress, and one critic summed up the frustration by saying the system allows « one idiot » to block the whole process. The complaint reflects a concern that ambitious measures can be watered down or stranded when agreement is required from every participant.
The gap between pledges and results is the central issue. Each decade the convention sets targets, and each decade the world has fallen short. The renewed vows from Yerevan do little to change that record unless the rules and follow-through improve. Supporters of reform argue that the summit needs stronger accountability, clearer consequences for missed goals, and a process that does not let a small group of objectors hold back collective action.
The 30 per cent protection goal, often called 30 by 30, has become a flagship target of the convention. Restoring degraded ecosystems and redirecting harmful subsidies are equally significant, because they address the economic forces behind habitat loss rather than only its symptoms. Without progress on subsidies, efforts to protect land and sea may struggle to keep pace with the pressures that damage them.
The Yerevan talks ended with the same core commitments that governments have repeated for years. Whether the new pledges produce measurable change will depend on national action in the years ahead, and on whether calls for structural reform gain enough support to alter how future summits operate.
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