YEREVAN, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for faster and stronger global action to protect biodiversity, warning that efforts to halt nature loss remain far behind international targets.
Speaking at a leaders' summit in Yerevan, Armenia's capital, Guterres urged countries to show "more action, more speed, and more will" ahead of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), scheduled for Oct. 19-30.
"Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability," he said, urging countries to assess their progress in protecting nature.
More than 1 million species face extinction, threatened by climate change, invasive species, overexploitation of natural resources and pollution, he warned.
Guterres said the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, had laid out a path to "make peace with nature," but progress remained uneven and far too slow.
Nearly 90 percent of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have set national biodiversity targets, while more than half have developed implementation plans. Since 2022, an additional 1.3 million square km of land and 6 million square km of ocean have come under formal protection, he said.
However, even if current national commitments are fulfilled, only 26 percent of land and 12 percent of marine areas would be protected by 2030, falling short of the global target of 30 percent for both.
Funding also remains a major obstacle. Citing a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Guterres said biodiversity financing stood at less than half the annual target of 200 billion U.S. dollars set under the framework.
"Biodiversity is not a separate challenge," he said, stressing its links to climate change, conflict, food insecurity and disease.
Guterres urged governments, financial institutions and businesses to accelerate implementation of the framework, calling for sustainable agriculture, circular economies, stronger environmental monitoring and stricter enforcement of existing laws. ■
