Key facts
- Nearly 200 nations agreed on texts at the UN biodiversity summit in Armenia.
- The summit aimed to revive a 2030 target to protect 30 percent of Earth's land and oceans.
- Harmful subsidies for fossil fuels, intensive agriculture, and overfishing were a contentious issue.
- Disagreements arose over funding sources for conservation efforts.
- A dispute occurred over the approval of scientific reports.
Nearly 200 nations reached agreements at the UN biodiversity summit in Armenia, but the outcome was tempered by disappointment over missed opportunities to address humanity's destructive impact on nature. Delegates cheered as crucial texts were approved in overtime, but acrimonious debates and regret over limited progress on contentious issues marked the close of the Cop17 summit. The summit aimed to revive a landmark commitment to halt and reverse nature destruction by 2030, as global efforts to meet this goal had fallen short. French Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut stated the outcome was "not commensurate" with the crisis, while WWF International's Guido Broekhoven described it as a "step forward" despite weaknesses on harmful subsidies.