Where COP17 stands
COP17 opened in Yerevan on 19th October 2026 with more than 10,000 delegates. It is the second biodiversity COP since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 and brings the first global review of collective progress. The findings demand action. The State of Biodiversity Action report, found that globally fewer than half of the assessed targets are on track. The UK’s Seventh National Report concluded that we are on course to achieve just 3 of the 23 targets.
Delegates are working to finalise what is being called the Yerevan Pathway, a set of decisions intended to accelerate implementation, tackle gaps in biodiversity finance and get global conservation commitments back on track. Resource mobilisation, the involvement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, digital sequence information and synthetic biology are also on the table. The challenge is turning negotiations into delivery.
Potential outcomes to watch
Final decisions are still being negotiated, so the outcome remains uncertain. These are the areas where COP17 must demonstrate whether it can deliver a real difference:
- A credible review. A global review must confront the gaps and set out how to close them if the Framework is to gain real momentum towards 2030.
- Finance. Closing the biodiversity finance gap and aligning public and private money with nature-positive outcomes is probably the most contested issue. It will determine whether ambition delivers action or remains another unfunded promise.
- Accountability. Without clear, transparent reporting, the Framework risks becoming little more than a wish list.
- Policy coherence. Biodiversity and climate processes must work together more closely so that action on one crisis does not undermine progress on the other.
Reflections for Wales
Wales has a distinctive perspective to bring and must match its words with action. In a video address for a Wildlife Trust and RSPB event at COP17, Llŷr Gruffydd, the Welsh Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability set out his thoughts. He emphasised that a thriving natural environment underpins resilient communities, economic prosperity, food security and wellbeing. He stressed that nature recovery and climate resilience must run through government, not remain confined to environmental portfolios.
That message matters as environment ministries cannot deliver the Global Biodiversity Framework alone. Ambition must be backed by statutory biodiversity targets informed by science and stakeholders. Wales is due to set these by 2028 yet moves to block meaningful water quality targets are already undermining the process. Effective institutions, robust evidence and transparent accountability are non-negotiable. The Minister called for a decade of implementation. That demands Plaids proposed Climate and Nature Plan to have clear, costed pathways to achieving the GBF not another statement of intent. Pressures on public spending are growing. But acknowledging climate adaptation as a matter of national security means little if governments fail to provide the funding needed to act. This week’s Welsh Government consultation on green financing is welcome, but progress is too slow. We need compliance markets now, particularly to mitigate development and nitrates in rivers.
Wales can speak with authority on long-term thinking through the Well-being of Future Generations Act. The Cabinet Secretary drew on this calling for decisions that look beyond the next budget or election cycle. He also called for investment in data and delivery partners, and for public and private finance to support nature-positive outcomes. Despite the summer we have just experienced, the new government has been slow to act on climate and nature. Tackling the nature crisis demands joint action. Wales already has an established environmental NGO sector with a proven record of delivering nature restoration. Government must back that capacity and repurpose budgets now. Flood defence funding must support both built defences and nature-based solutions, including rewetting our uplands. Farmers are central to delivery and need greater investment to create resilient ecosystems. But instead, attention is focused on the Farm Review while rollout of the new farm subsidy scheme’s Options and Collaborative tiers stalls.
We agree with the Cabinet Secretary that the world needs a decade of implementation, not another decade of promises. The global review reinforces that message. Targets are being missed not because governments lack agreed goals, but because they have failed to deliver the finance, action and follow-through those goals demand.
The time for promises without delivery is over. Whatever the final text from Yerevan says, the real test begins when delegates go home. For Wales, that means restoring peatlands, expanding woodlands, backing delivery partners and answering for results. Failure leaves nature in decline and communities exposed to flooding and wildfires. But decline is not inevitable. With honest leadership, genuine partnership and sustained investment, Wales can help turn the Global Biodiversity Framework from words into recovery and build a future where nature thrives benefiting communities across Wales.