The United Nations biodiversity summit, COP17, opened Monday in Yerevan with urgent calls for countries to reform subsidies that drive environmental degradation. Nearly 200 nations had previously committed to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 under the “Paris Agreement on Nature,” but progress remains insufficient, according to a UN scorecard released ahead of the talks.
United Nations biodiversity chief Astrid Schomaker highlighted that the most significant shortfalls are in areas requiring profound economic and societal shifts, including the politically sensitive issue of cutting subsidies that harm biodiversity. Despite prior commitments to phase out these harmful incentives, governments continue to spend approximately $2.6 trillion annually on activities detrimental to the environment, such as coal and gas extraction and industrial farming.
Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu emphasized the need to reduce incentives that negatively impact biodiversity during the summit’s opening session. Under the biodiversity agreement, countries pledged to cut harmful subsidies by $500 billion annually by 2030, yet progress toward this target has been limited.
Financial support for biodiversity conservation has also fallen short of promises. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized governments for “spending money on the wrong things,” specifically highlighting the ongoing subsidization of fossil fuels as contributing to environmental collapse. Experts identify inadequate funding as a major obstacle to meeting 2030 biodiversity goals, particularly affecting pollution control, invasive species management, and protection of 30 percent of land and ocean areas, much of which lies in developing nations rich in biodiversity.
“We have to change where existing money goes. We cannot finance nature with one hand and subsidize its destruction with the other,” said Celine Beaulieu of WWF during a press briefing in Yerevan.
Discussions at COP17 are expected to focus on securing greater private sector contributions to conservation efforts, including encouraging corporations to allocate profits to a largely depleted UN fund aimed at supporting developing countries. Meanwhile, wealthier nations are expected to urge major emerging economies, such as China, to increase financial commitments.
Greenpeace’s An Lambrechts stressed the importance of converting summit commitments into domestic action, warning that continued support for harmful subsidies undermines global efforts to protect ecosystems. “Any more delay is a threat to our survival on the planet,” Lambrechts said.
Presiding over the negotiations, Armenia’s Environment Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan described the summit as a critical opportunity to redirect global conservation efforts. The event, one of the largest held in Armenia with an anticipated attendance of up to 15,000 over two weeks, takes place amid complicated global circumstances including economic challenges, geopolitical tensions, and an ongoing energy crisis.
Only a limited number of world leaders, including Guterres and officials mainly from Central Asia, attended a high-level summit session preceding the formal negotiations. Matevosyan cautioned that success would not be measured by participation or statements alone but by concrete action taken following the summit.
Guterres echoed this sentiment, describing the escalating “war on nature” as an existential threat to the planet’s habitability, and called for accelerated, determined efforts to address the crisis. “It is time to ask ourselves—are we doing enough?” he said.