YEREVAN, Armenia / AfricaWire.IO / – More than one million species face the risk of extinction as humanity continues to destroy nature, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Friday. Speaking at the Leaders’ Summit in Yerevan, Armenia, on October 16, he called for urgent and effective global action against environmental degradation. The summit preceded the 17th UN Biodiversity Conference, COP17, which Armenia hosts from October 19 to 30. Guterres said the destruction threatens the future of life on Earth.
The Secretary-General urged governments to increase investments in solutions that protect ecosystems and emphasized the need for greater involvement from businesses and local communities. He identified climate disruption, overgrazing, and the excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides as primary drivers of the triple planetary crisis. He explained that pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change together are pushing the planet toward becoming uninhabitable, but he also underscored that this outcome is not inevitable.
Four years after the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Guterres highlighted that progress has been inconsistent and far too slow. The 2022 agreement set a target of conserving 30% of the planet’s land and sea by 2030, with nearly 90% of participating countries having since adopted national biodiversity targets, and over half creating national road maps. He described the Yerevan meeting as a significant moment for accountability halfway through the process.
$30 spent on harm for every $1 on nature
Guterres pointed out a stark imbalance in global spending on nature, noting that for each dollar invested in conservation, $30 is spent on activities that damage it. In 2023 alone, $7.3 trillion flowed into industries detrimental to nature, including heavy industry, destructive agribusiness, and fossil fuels. He called on governments to permanently eliminate such subsidies and highlighted the Cali Fund, which encourages companies benefiting from nature to contribute financially.
The UN Secretary-General stated that achieving biodiversity, climate, and land restoration goals will require annual investments in nature-based solutions of $571 billion by 2030, roughly 0.5% of global gross domestic product. However, biodiversity financing remains below half of the $200 billion annual target set under the framework. He also emphasized that heavy debt burdens, limited budgets, and an unfair international financial system hinder developing countries’ capacity to invest in nature.
Current commitments safeguard only 26% of land
Existing pledges fall short of meeting the 30% conservation goal, with projections indicating that if countries fulfill their current promises, only 26% of land ecosystems and 12% of marine ecosystems would be protected by 2030. Since 2022, formal protection efforts have expanded to cover an additional 1.3 million square kilometres of land and 6 million square kilometres of ocean. Guterres urged nations to shift from policies that harm nature to those that sustain it.
He called for increased engagement from young people, civil society, women, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities, recognizing that environmental decline often impacts the most vulnerable populations the hardest. The Secretary-General welcomed the Yerevan Declaration’s commitment to integrating biodiversity into policies, budgets, and regulations. He emphasized that biodiversity issues are interconnected with conflict, food insecurity, disease, and climate change. The COP17 negotiations are scheduled to commence in Yerevan on October 19.