The curtains have closed on the UN biodiversity COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia, leaving behind a sobering reality: despite two weeks of intense, overnight negotiations, the global community remains woefully off track to halt the rapid destruction of the natural world. As the summit concluded, growing scrutiny has shifted from the specific conservation targets to the very architecture of the UN process, with critics arguing the current diplomatic model is “designed to fail.”
In the 34-year history of the biodiversity convention, nations have failed to meet a single comprehensive target. The Yerevan summit resulted in a reaffirmed commitment to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which includes the “30×30” pledge to protect 30% of the planet by 2030, the restoration of degraded ecosystems, and the reform of $500bn in environmentally damaging subsidies. Yet, with only a few years remaining, progress remains stagnant. The UK, for instance, is currently on track to meet only three of its 23 individual obligations.
The proceedings in Armenia were marked by deep divisions. Countries such as Argentina, Saudi Arabia, and Russia successfully pushed to weaken language regarding environmental ambition, while the contentious debate over climate finance remains deadlocked. Wealthier nations are increasingly at odds over which countries should be classified as “donors,” with tensions rising over the inclusion of China and Gulf states—nations that maintain developing-country status despite decades of massive economic expansion.
Perhaps most illustrative of the summit’s difficulties was the fate of a conservation fund intended to capture resources from firms profiting from digital biodiversity data, such as pharmaceutical companies. Initially envisioned to generate £1bn annually to support nature and Indigenous communities, the fund has limped to a total of just $10,000, with final decisions postponed until the next summit in Ecuador in two years.
The perceived lack of progress has fueled calls for a radical overhaul of how the UN handles environmental governance. Panama’s environment minister, Juan Carlos Navarro, delivered a scathing critique of the consensus-based system, which allows a single nation to hold up global agreements. “A lot of what’s going on out here at the Cop is just a bunch of baloney and beautiful speeches and BS,” Navarro said. He suggested that the current structure—designed to accommodate every nation’s interests simultaneously—is inherently broken and called for the consolidation of climate, biodiversity, and plastics summits into a single, more efficient event.
While some officials, including UK nature envoy Ruth Davis, defend the process as an essential, if frustrating, mechanism for global consensus, others acknowledge the need for structural change. Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, admitted that the current “cluttered” landscape of overlapping conventions is energy-sapping and inefficient. “Each of these conventions came along at the right time, but we now have a plethora of them,” Andersen noted. “Maybe we should think about that.”
As governments return home, they face mounting pressure to bridge the gap between diplomatic rhetoric and on-the-ground implementation. With environmental policy experts increasingly warning that the current COP model is no longer “fit for purpose,” the pressure to reform the UN’s approach has never been higher. For now, however, the disconnect between the speed of ecological collapse and the pace of bureaucratic deliberation remains a defining challenge of the decade.
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