Delegates cheered as the crucial texts were approved in overtime but the celebrations were tempered by acrimonious debates and limited progress on some of the toughest issues.
“And that’s it. Perfect,” said COP17 president Hambardzum Matevosyan in Armenia as he brought down the gavel on the documents, the final versions of which were not immediately available.
It marked a renewed push to meet a landmark 2030 commitment to protect the plants, animals and ecosystems that sustain life on Earth after countries fell short on their promise.
According to the United Nations, progress has lagged and key targets – including protecting 30 percent of land and oceans, tackling pollution, and increasing money for conservation – are off track.
Over two bruising weeks in Yerevan, nations were urged to correct course to keep the pact alive.
In a draft agreement of one closely watched text, nations were urged to “accelerate” their efforts and warned that “increased action” was needed to tackle the forces driving biodiversity loss.
After the cheers subsided, negotiations on other items dragged into the early hours of Saturday as the tone soured.
Some welcomed modest progress on tackling subsidies and other incentives that encourage activities harmful to nature, such as fossil fuels, intensive agriculture and overfishing.
Efforts to refine the lacklustre Cali Fund – a UN mechanism for sharing profits from corporations that use genetic data from plants and other organisms – also proved difficult.
The fund set out to raise US$1 billion a year for conservation in developing countries when it launched in early 2025. So far, it has attracted around US$10,000.
Nations have also feuded over science, with a small handful of countries accused of using tactics familiar from climate negotiations to weaken the role of a UN-backed biodiversity body.
“This UN conference made it clear that the obstructionist politics of the climate talks have entered the biodiversity negotiations,” said Alfred DeGemmis from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Around 70 ministers joined the negotiations this week in an effort to nudge things along but the pace was sluggish, with indigenous leaders and civil society activists appealing to nations to act with greater urgency.
The 31st UN Climate Change Conference is scheduled for November 9 to 20, in Antalya, Türkiye. (AFP)
