Scaling up investment in nature-based solutions

Over one million species now face the risk of extinction, edging us ever closer towards an uninhabitable world. It doesn’t have to be this way. Four years ago in Montreal, leaders agreed on a plan. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework laid out a path to make peace with nature.

But that was just the beginning. We need more action, more speed, and more will. Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability. It’s time to ask ourselves: Are we doing enough?

There is good news and bad news. The Global Biodiversity Framework has inspired action across the globe. Nearly 90 percent of Parties to the Convention have established national biodiversity targets. And over half have set out their own national roadmaps for delivery.

Since 2022, an additional 1.3 million square kilometers of land and 6 million square kilometers of ocean have come under formal protection. But progress is uneven, and far too slow. Even if current national commitments are met, only 26 percent of terrestrial, and 12 percent of marine ecosystems would be protected by 2030. That is well short of the promise made in Montreal to protect 30 percent of land and sea by 2030.

Major gaps also remain in targets linked to economic systems, including those focused on reducing harmful incentives. And many of the critical elements of progress — including finance, capacity, cooperation and data — are still largely missing in action. An OECD report released earlier this month found that biodiversity financing is less than half of the $200 billion we agreed to under the Framework.

I welcome the Yerevan Declaration, which vows to make this conference a turning point for our planet. And to enshrine biodiversity in every government decision — from policies, to budgets, to regulations.

The stark truth is, we are spending money on the wrong things. For every dollar invested in protecting nature, $30 are spent destroying it. In 2023, $7.3 trillion flowed into nature-negative activities. Heavy industries that spew pollution. Agribusiness that strips the land. And of course, fossil fuels. Subsidizing fossil fuels is subsidizing suicide. They are boiling our planet, and are the scourge of biodiversity.

I urge governments everywhere to end these handouts once and for all, and to use the savings for people and planet instead.

According to figures from UN Environment earlier this year, achieving the global biodiversity, climate and land restoration targets laid out in the three Rio conventions requires scaling up investment in nature-based solutions to $571 billion annually by 2030.

That’s just half of one percent of global GDP — a small price to pay for a liveable Earth. But governments cannot do this alone. The private sector must also step up.

The Cali Fund is an innovative financing mechanism that allows the businesses that profit from nature to help protect it. I urge companies everywhere to contribute, and governments to incentivize participation.

Environmental decline often falls hardest on the most vulnerable, and those who did the least to cause the problem. But the solutions often arise from these same groups. For the Global Biodiversity Framework to succeed, we need partnerships like never before. These include:

The innovation of young people...

The energy of civil society....

The participation of women...

And, of course, the leadership of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. By placing Indigenous knowledge at the heart of biodiversity, we can harness one of the world’s most powerful AIs:

Ancestral Intelligence. These millennia-old practices that can bring humankind back into alignment with earth, sea and sky.

Over a decade in office, one of my greatest priorities has been fighting the triple crise of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution. This is because, like many of you, I have children and grandchildren. They are counting on us to be leaders for nature.

In nature, leaders are nurturers. The matriarchs of elephant herds, who know the paths to hidden water in times of drought. The first bird in a migrating flock who cuts the air for those flying behind. The plants, known as pioneer species, which have evolved to grow back first after wildfires, and enrich the soil for those that follow.

We must be nurturers too. Let us act with the urgency this moment demands. For our children. For our future. And for all life on Earth.

(Excerpts of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ remarks to the Leaders’ Summit on Biodiversity at COP 17 in Yerevan, Armenia on 16 October 2026.)