The COP17 UN biodiversity summit in Yerevan failed to deliver the action needed to halt nature loss, Greenpeace Belgium said on Saturday after the meeting ended.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries spent the past two weeks in the Armenian capital reviewing the 23 targets set out in the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Under that agreement, all participating countries committed themselves to measures including protecting 30 per cent of land and ocean by 2030.
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Greenpeace said the summit had set a direction towards those goals but had not produced the acceleration required. The organisation said COP17 had been disappointing.
“COP17 is keeping things moving, but the pace falls far short of what the biodiversity crisis demands,” Greenpeace said. “With just four years to go, the world is seriously off track on 22 of the 23 targets.”
The group also said the summit had failed to remove barriers linked to financing and environmentally harmful subsidies.
“It is unacceptable that multinational companies make huge profits at nature’s expense while refusing to contribute to its protection,” said An Lambrechts, biodiversity policy expert at Greenpeace International.
Greenpeace also criticised Belgium for still not publishing an inventory of environmentally harmful subsidies, despite a promise made four years ago.
“With 95% of our habitats in poor condition, continuing to finance this destruction is no longer negligence but a deliberate political choice,” the organisation said. “Belgium must stop subsidising the destruction of nature.”
Finally, Greenpeace said it regretted that the rights of Indigenous peoples had not been strengthened further at the summit.
“Governments will never meet the 2030 nature targets if they undermine the rights of the people who are the true protectors of nature,” the organisation said.
