Ahead of COP17, UN Biodiversity Chief Urges Urgent Realignment of Finance with Nature Goals

Closing plenary of the recent Kunming Dialogue. Credit: ENB-IISD/Anastasia Rodopoulouby Stella Paul (kunming, china)Thursday, September 17, 2026Inter Press Service KUNMING, China, September 17 (IPS) - The world may have enough money to protect nature. The bigger problem, according to the head of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), is that too much of it is still being spent on activities that destroy it. With just four years left to meet the world’s 2030 biodiversity goals, Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the CBD, said governments must urgently change where money flows if they are to slow the loss of nature.Her warning comes just weeks before governments meet in Yerevan, Armenia, for COP17, the UN biodiversity conference scheduled for October 19-30.Speaking at a press conference organised by the CBD Secretariat on September 11 – after the three-day Kunming Dialogue, Schomaker said governments need to redirect financial flows and reform incentives that encourage activities harmful to nature. Without such changes, she warned, progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) will remain too slow.What’s Slowing Biodiversity Action?The Kunm...