Climateupdated 1h ago2 min read
COP17 In Yerevan Pressures Nations To Salvage Nature Pact As Finance Gap Persists
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Funding gap for wildlife conservation remains unresolved at COP17 meetings in Yerevan. Progress on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is off track.
COP17 in Yerevan
Nearly 200 nations gathered in Armenia for COP17 in Yerevan as governments faced pressure to salvage a nature pact whose goals are slipping out of reach, with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan saying, "We must honestly admit that collectively, we are not yet on track as needed." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told leaders in Yerevan that the world is in an unrelenting "war on nature" that threatened the very livability of the planet for future generations.
“Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability.”
The UN scorecard ahead of COP17 reported that progress toward the 23 biodiversity targets was uneven and not at pace to meet the 2030 deadline, while the effort to close a yawning gap in necessary finance "falls far short" of what is needed. The summit’s centerpiece commitment aimed to protect 30 percent of Earth’s land and oceans, and the negotiations were set against public finances under strain and political attention fixed on conflicts, geopolitical tensions and a global energy crisis.
Funding, targets, and voices
Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said, "Collectively, we are not acting on the scale required," as COP17 confronted a funding shortfall that the first global review said was not on track. RFI quoted Juliette Landry saying barriers included "a lack of political will for some countries" and, for others, "lack of access to financial resources, lack of capacities, lack of technologies."
The UN News brief said the framework calls for at least $200 billion annually from all sources by 2030, including at least $30 billion in international biodiversity finance, and it framed COP17 as moving from promises to delivery. The Guardian said countries met in Nairobi concluded they were off track on every single one of the 23 targets agreed in Montreal in 2022, and it described money as the key challenge for what an ambitious deal could look like.
What is at stake
Leaders at COP17 faced a biodiversity crisis described by Le Monde as urgent, with about 1 million animal and plant species threatened with extinction in the coming decades. The UN News brief said COP17 would consider how to accelerate action over the next four years, and it pointed to the first global review of collective progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
RFI reported that the UN’s Cali Fund, launched in February 2025 with a goal of raising $1 billion a year, had reportedly only collected $6,000, while it also cited UN figures that governments were spending $2.6 trillion a year on environmentally harmful subsidies. Sustainability Online said COP17 opens in Armenia with global biodiversity goals still off track, and it quoted Teresa Ribera urging, "Yerevan should be the COP of proof, not only of promises," as governments were expected to turn ambition into delivery before COP31 in Türkiye next month.