In brief
During marathon negotiations in Yerevan, COP17 delegates approved the Yerevan Pathway, a comprehensive plan to strengthen national strategies, improve monitoring, and boost financing for biodiversity. The conference also set Quito, Ecuador, as the site of COP18 in 2028. However, substantial debates over finance, harmful subsidies, and scientific evidence remain unresolved.
In a marathon negotiation that stretched for roughly 12 hours from Friday night through Saturday morning, more than 100 countries reached agreements at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. The final outcome was a joint adoption of a plan the delegates named the Yerevan Pathway, aimed at accelerating biodiversity action from 2026 to 2030.
The event was framed by the theme Taking Action for Nature and attracted widespread attention, even as disagreements over biodiversity finance, harmful subsidies, and the interpretation of scientific evidence persisted among the attendees.
Armenia’s environment minister and COP17 President Hambardzum Matevosyan welcomed the adoption of the pathway, saying:
“I think we’ve achieved more than we could have expected in terms of the diversity of the agenda items, in terms of the importance of those items for many countries and parties, and in terms of the items that were anticipated for a long time that have managed to be approved and adopted,”
The executive secretary of the CBD Secretariat, Astrid Schomaker, emphasized the need to translate the decision into action:
“It is wonderful that we have faced up to the gaps identified in the global report. We have adopted the Yerevan Pathway, and now we need to follow this pathway towards 2030,”
Yerevan Pathway Framework
The pathway was developed through the global review process that underpins the Kunming‑Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, which contains 23 targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. The new plan prioritizes: stronger national biodiversity strategies; better monitoring of progress; increased financing to support measures; enhanced technology transfer; and capacity‑building initiatives for governments and civil society.
In addition to institutional upgrades, the Yerevan Pathway stresses whole‑of‑government coordination and the involvement of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and young people in decision making—groups that the conference identified as essential for equitable implementation of biodiversity goals.
While the pathway is a milestone, the conference also moved forward with a logistical decision: the vote confirmed that COP18 will take place in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, in 2028. COP17 itself began on October 19 and was scheduled to conclude on Friday, but the contentious discussions carried the proceedings into Saturday and underscored the urgency of finalizing action plans.
As the conference closed, both the COP17 President and the executive secretary highlighted the concrete steps agreed and the symbolic momentum generated, but they also noted that the real test lies in how governments will operationalize commitments over the next few years.
Nevertheless, uncertainties persist. The sources acknowledge that debates over financing mechanisms, harmful subsidies, and the interpretation of scientific evidence remain unresolved, and they do not yet confirm how governments will achieve the ambitions set by the Yerevan Pathway between 2026 and 2030.