Nearly 200 nations on Friday adopted hard-fought agreements at a UN biodiversity summit aimed at putting the world back on track in efforts to halt nature's destruction by 2030. Delegates cheered as the crucial texts were approved in overtime following two weeks of tense negotiations at the COP17 conference in Armenia's capital Yerevan. Perfect", said COP17 president Hambardzum Matevosyan to applause as he brought down the gavel on the documents, the final versions of which were not made immediately available to the public.
The world adopted a historic pact in 2022 setting ambitious targets to halt biodiversity loss by 2030. But ahead of the summit, the UN warned that countries would fail to meet the goal unless they urgently corrected course. Most of the objectives are falling short, including targets to protect 30 percent of Earth's land and oceans, tackle pollution, and provide poorer countries with greater conservation finance.A draft COP17 text earlier called on countries to "accelerate" efforts to keep the pact alive and stressed "increased action" was needed to tackle the root drivers of nature loss.
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Highlighting the disagreements that dogged the talks, the document proposed various options to achieve the 2030 goal. It was not immediately clear which of those options made the cut. During negotiations, countries wrangled over reforming subsidies and other incentives that encourage activities harmful to nature, such as fossil fuels, intensive agriculture and overfishing.
A separate row revolved around finding new cash sources to fund conservation efforts around the globe – a hot-button issue with public budgets under strain amid an energy crisis and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. To restore degraded ecosystems, save endangered species and conserve forests, wetlands and other vital natural habitats, the world needs an estimated $700 billion more every year than it currently spends. Climate change: Glacier loss and dry rivers threaten water security To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
The European Union led a charge for wealthy emerging economies such as China to join in paying for global conservation efforts– a contentious issue at COP17. In a sign that a compromise was in the offing, another draft text that circulated earlier Friday invited countries outside the list of developed country donors to voluntarily join the group. Read moreNations accused of undermining science at UN nature talks Efforts to refine the lacklustre Cali Fund – a UN mechanism for sharing profits from corporations that use genetic data from plants and other organisms – also proved difficult.
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