Calls are growing for major reforms to UN biodiversity summits as countries fail to deliver on their promises to halt the destruction of the natural world, with governments likely on track to continue their record of never having met a target in the 34-year history of the convention.<\/p>\n
Two weeks of negotiations at biodiversity Cop17 in Yerevan, Armenia, concluded on Saturday morning with countries vowing to redouble their efforts to meet this decade\u2019s targets, which include commitments to protect 30% of the planet for nature, restore nearly a third of Earth\u2019s degraded ecosystems and reform $500bn (\u00a3410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Agreed just four years ago by nearly every government on the planet, they aim to transform humanity\u2019s relationship with nature<\/a>. Despite progress in some areas, governments are way off track on meeting almost all of the targets. The UK is set to meet just three<\/a> of the 23.<\/p>\n After talks that ran overnight from Friday into Saturday morning, countries signed off several measures, including a commitment<\/a> to ramp up action on meeting existing targets and reaffirming a goal to increase biodiversity finance to $30bn a year by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n During the conference, environment ministers, activists and officials appealed for significant changes to the way the summits function to ensure governments follow through with meaningful action on the drivers of biodiversity loss.<\/p>\n Panama\u2019s environment minister, Juan Carlos Navarro, a veteran conservationist, said the Cop process had been \u201cdesigned to fail\u201d, arguing that decisions should be taken by a majority as the consensus-based process allows \u201cone idiot\u201d to prevent agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of what\u2019s going on out here at the Cop is just a bunch of baloney and beautiful speeches and BS,\u201d he told AFP earlier this week. \u201cWe cannot have \u2013 we cannot expect \u2013 a consensus between every nation on Earth on every topic. That\u2019s ridiculous. Cops have been designed to fail, and they are not disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n He also argued that the UN should host a single environmental Cop each year to tackle the climate, biodiversity, plastics and other issues in one go.<\/p>\n \u201cThis just makes my blood boil, because while we fiddle, Rome burns,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Countries agreed measures at Cop17 including a commitment to ramp up action on meeting existing targets. Photograph: Karen Minasyan\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The negotiations in the Armenian capital have seen Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Russia water down language on environmental ambition in the final agreement, while wealthier governments were divided on who would contribute more financial resources.<\/p>\n European nations would like to see additions to the list of donor states, as China and several of the Gulf states are still classified as developing countries in the UN process despite decades of rapid economic development. The final agreement in Yerevan left this issue open.<\/p>\n