PARIS: UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the “war on nature has not yet ended” as he launched a report showing the world was falling short of its biodiversity commitments. Nations will assess progress and pitfalls toward a 2030 goal to stop the destruction of nature when they meet in Armenia next week for the UN biodiversity negotiations.

Nearly 200 countries joined the landmark “Paris Agreement for Nature” four years ago but have been slow to act on its objectives. The pact laid out 23 targets for halting and reversing nature loss by 2030, including reducing pollution, protecting threatened species and conserving 30pc of the world’s land and oceans.

But many of these targets are off track, said Guterres as he launched a global report spotlighting the gaps between ambition and action. “It’s not all bad news... There is progress, but not enough. We are far from what is necessary,” he told reporters in the Armenian capital Yerevan where the COP17 talks start on Monday.

“The report shows that many of the critical elements of progress... are still missing in action”.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2026