World losing ground in ‘war on nature’ as progress on biodiversity targets lags

Fewer than half of the national targets set to protect the world’s plants, animals and ecosystems are on track, the UN warns in a new report, days before countries gather in Yerevan, Armenia, for the COP17 biodiversity conference.The landmark deal struck in Montreal in 2022 – the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – set out a vision of “living in harmony with nature” by 2050, with urgent action needed by 2030.The new report suggests the world is falling behind.“Biodiversity underpins life on Earth,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in the report. “Safeguarding biological diversity is essential to the health of our planet, the resilience of our economies and the wellbeing of all people.”Trailing behindOne of the deal’s flagship goals was to protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s land, inland waters, coasts and oceans by 2030.Yet even if current commitments are met, only 26 per cent of land and 12 per cent of the ocean would be protected by that deadline, the report finds.Progress is also lagging on money, skills, cooperation and data, as well as on economic incentives that reward protecting nature rather than destroying it.“This bad news means that the wa...