Biodiversity summit fails to meet targets, sparking calls for overhaul

The two-week summit, which ended Saturday morning, saw nations pledge renewed efforts toward targets including safeguarding 30% of the planet for nature, restoring nearly a third of degraded ecosystems, and reforming $500 billion in environmentally damaging subsidies. These targets, agreed upon by nearly every government globally four years ago, aim to fundamentally reshape humanity’s relationship with nature. However, progress remains insufficient across most areas; the United Kingdom, for example, is projected to meet only three of its 23 targets.

Following overnight negotiations, participating countries approved measures to intensify action on existing targets and reaffirmed a goal to increase biodiversity financing to $30 billion annually by the end of the decade. Concerns about the effectiveness of the Cop process have prompted appeals for significant reforms to ensure governments translate pledges into tangible action.

Juan Carlos Navarro, Panama’s environment minister, criticized the current system as “designed to fail,” arguing for a shift away from consensus-based decision-making. “A lot of what’s going on out here at the Cop is just a bunch of baloney and beautiful speeches and BS,” he stated. He further proposed consolidating all environmental Cops into a single annual event to address climate, biodiversity, plastics, and related issues.

Negotiations were complicated by attempts from Argentina, Saudi Arabia, and Russia to weaken environmental language in the final agreement. Disagreements also arose among wealthier nations regarding financial contributions, particularly concerning the classification of China and Gulf states as developing countries within the UN framework. This issue remains unresolved.

A proposed fund to mobilize resources from companies profiting from digital biodiversity applications, such as pharmaceutical firms, was postponed to the next summit in Ecuador in two years. The fund, initially projected to generate £1 billion annually with a significant portion directed to Indigenous communities, has currently raised just over $10,000.

Calls for Cop reform echo similar criticisms voiced by policy experts during the climate Cop29 in Azerbaijan in 2024, who deemed the summit “no longer fit for purpose.” UK nature envoy Ruth Davis acknowledged the frustrations but emphasized ongoing implementation efforts worldwide. Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, noted the current system’s slow pace and suggested streamlining the environmental agenda to address programmatic overlap between conventions.