COP17 biodiversity summit ends with limited progress as critics warn time is running out for nature goals

The closing meeting lasted all night on Friday and well into the morning. When COP17 in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, finally ended, several delegates cheered, the AFP news agency reports.

After two weeks of tough negotiations, several agreements were reached in two key documents. But the celebrations were tempered by disappointment and bitter disputes during the meeting.

The UN has warned that progress so far has been insufficient to meet the 2030 targets, including protecting 30 percent of the Earth's land and sea areas, combating pollution and invasive species, and increasing funding for nature conservation.

"Missed opportunities"

The outcome in Yerevan is an important step towards getting on the right track, according to some. For example, UN biodiversity chief Astrid Schomaker believes the summit has achieved "some pretty remarkable things at a time when multilateralism is said to not work," according to AFP.

But only limited progress has been made on some of the most pressing issues, such as finding funding for nature conservation efforts, analysts say. One of them is Monique Barbut, France's minister for ecological transition.

“The progress we failed to make is a series of missed opportunities to increase the pace of our action against biodiversity loss,” she tells AFP.

"Our future"

The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation is disappointed and would have liked COP17 to go further, especially on financing and implementation.

“The meeting was about our future, about welfare, food security, access to clean water and resilience to climate disasters. That is why it is urgent,” the organization’s Secretary General Karin Lexén says in a press release.

In Sweden, too, progress is too slow, Lexén says, pointing out that the country is currently meeting neither its national nor its global environmental goals.

“The government must strengthen implementation of the Nature Agreement through increased investment in the protection and restoration of nature, the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies and an updated national strategy for biodiversity,” Lexén says.