Seoul Gazette - UN nature summit in extra time as nations grapple for deal

A plenary in the Armenian capital was rescheduled for late in the evening after nearly two weeks of tense negotiations at the COP17 talks, with governments under pressure to reach a compromise as time runs out.

Ahead of the summit, the UN warned the world would fail to meet its 2030 target to halt and reverse nature's destruction unless countries urgently correct course.

French Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut played down hopes of major breakthroughs at COP17.

"It won't go down in history for its achievements," she told reporters.

Nearly 200 nations adopted a historic pact in 2022 to halt biodiversity loss and set ambitious targets for reaching this goal by 2030.

But 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 text at COP17 urges nations to "accelerate" efforts to keep the pact alive.

The draft, however, reflects lingering disagreements as it offers three different proposals on what type of action is needed to keep the 2030 target within reach.

A core dispute is over reforming subsidies and other incentives that encourage activities harmful to nature, such as fossil fuels, intensive agriculture and overfishing.

A separate row revolves 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.

The European Union has been leading a charge for wealthy emerging economies like China to join in paying for global conservation efforts, a contentious issue at COP17.

A draft text "invites" countries outside the list of developed country donors to voluntarily join the group.

"Progress was seen on broadening the donor base," Barbut said.

- Slow progress -

Efforts to refine the lacklustre Cali Fund -- a UN mechanism for sharing profits from corporations that use genetic data from plants and other organisms -- have also proved difficult.

The fund set out to raise $1 billion a year for conservation in developing countries when it launched in early 2025. So far, it has attracted around $10,000.

Nations have also feuded over key scientific reports, with a small handful of countries accused of stonewalling efforts to accept the benchmark findings of a UN-backed biodiversity body.

"The attacks on science have bothered me a lot," Barbut said.

Observers noted the sluggish pace of the negotiations in Yerevan, despite indigenous leaders and civil society activists appealing to nations to act with greater urgency.

Around 70 ministers joined the fray this week in an effort to nudge things along but no major decisions were expected until the final moments of the summit.

The COP17 presidency was "really keen to come to a conclusion and to not drag it on for too long", Guido Broekhoven, a close observer of the negotiations from WWF International, told AFP.

"Of course, we don't want that to be based then on lowering ambition, there is always a risk of that," Broekhoven added.

At the last biodiversity summit in Colombia in 2024, talks ran overtime as nations haggled over conservation finance and ended without a deal. Negotiations resumed in Rome in 2025 where an agreement was reached.

The COP17 summit is also expected to decide on Friday whether Panama or Ecuador will host the next biodiversity summit in 2028.

A.Kim--SG