COP17 reaches a deal on nature after overtime, but funding falls short

Delegates from nearly 200 countries agreed the key parts of a new action plan early Saturday, hours after the talks were due to end. In it, countries acknowledged they are falling behind on the 2022 targets.

Targets on track, according to the UN

1 target

According to the UN, the world is on track to achieve just one of the targets set in the 2022 agreement, including protecting 30 per cent of land and seas by 2030.

More than US$1 billion was pledged at the meeting, half of it from philanthropists. The 2022 deal set goals of US$30 billion for nature recovery by 2030 and a further US$170 billion from private sources.

Still unresolved

The Cali Fund, meant to collect donations from companies that profit from genetic material found in nature, saw little progress: just US$10,000 had been pledged at the start, against up to US$3.6 billion a year it could raise. Countries did make some progress on cutting subsidies that harm nature.