COP17 nature summit ends with a fragile deal and a first call for new donors

Governments at the United Nations biodiversity summit in Yerevan, Armenia, agreed Saturday to step up efforts to protect nature and, for the first time, invited large emerging economies such as China and the Gulf states to take on donor responsibilities.

The deal came after an all-night session at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, where a dispute over how to pay for expanded conservation stalled the talks. A UN progress report found the world is off track on 22 of 23 global nature targets, including protecting 30% of land and seas by 2030.

The main decision, known as the Yerevan Pathway, asks countries to revise their biodiversity plans, subject to funding, with a focus on gaps in marine, coastal and inland water protection. It urges the more than 60 countries that have not submitted national plans to do so "as soon as possible" and calls for "accelerating" reform of harmful subsidies, the target with the least progress.

On finance, the European Union (EU) pushed to add China and Saudi Arabia to the donor list, which the Arab group strongly opposed. The compromise invites interested developing countries to notify the convention's secretariat and requests a technical report on the implications. Countries had already missed a goal to channel $20 billion to biodiversity by 2025.

"We've achieved more than we could've expected," said Hambardzum Matevosyan, Armenia's environment minister and the summit's president. Daudi Sumba, chief conservation officer at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said, "I fear finance will remain the key issue that continues to haunt the UN biodiversity summits."

This brief is based on reporting by Sebastian Rodriguez, published Oct. 31, 2026, in Climate Home News. Read the original: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2026/10/31/cop17-delivers-fragile-deal-scaling-up-biodiversity-conservation-armenia-cbd/