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.

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, but 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.”

One 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.

However, whilst progress has been disappointing, it is not negligible since 2022. Nearly 90 per cent of countries that are parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have set national targets, and more than half have drawn up their own plans to deliver them. More than 70 per cent have measured and reported on their results.

Indigenous Peoples, local communities, regional and city authorities, charities and businesses have also made some 5,000 commitments, though the report warns of a serious gap between ambition and action.

More will need to be done on finance, skills, cooperation and data, as well as on economic incentives that reward protecting nature rather than destroying it if the 2050 target is to be met and the route reestablished.

---