COP17 Adopts Yerevan Biodiversity Pathway

Nearly 200 countries at the UN’s COP17 biodiversity summit in Yerevan adopted the Yerevan Pathway, setting priorities for the remaining four years to accelerate implementation of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its 2030 targets. The pathway calls for aligning budgets and economic decisions with biodiversity goals, reforming nature-harming subsidies, strengthening monitoring, and increasing financial and technical support for developing countries; delegates also approved nearly 50 decisions, including rules for a permanent body to strengthen Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ participation. Countries announced close to $2 billion in new nature finance, but the estimated additional $700 billion in annual conservation funding remains a major challenge. The world is badly behind the goal of halting and reversing nature loss, with countries on track to meet only one of the framework’s 24 objectives, including the target to protect 30% of land and seas by 2030. Advocates and some officials called the agreements a needed course correction, while critics said they fell short of the crisis and did not resolve key disputes over action and financing.