IWN Report — Monday, 19 October 2026

The world’s first progress report on its 2030 promise to halt and reverse the loss of nature finds that fewer than half of the national targets assessed so far are on track, arriving on the day governments sit down to negotiate how to catch up.

The report, The State of Biodiversity Action, was launched in Yerevan, Armenia, on 15 October, according to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It is the first global assessment of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the plan with 23 targets for 2030 that countries adopted in December 2022, and it feeds into the first global review of that framework at COP17, the UN Biodiversity Conference running in Yerevan from 19 to 30 October.

The UN Secretary-General, who launched the report, said that finance, capacity, cooperation and data are still missing from the global effort, and that “nature won’t thrive on good intentions.”

Nearly 90 per cent of the CBD’s 196 Parties have set national biodiversity targets, and about 60 per cent have developed national biodiversity strategies and action plans. More than 70 per cent have submitted national reports, and Indigenous peoples, local communities, regional governments, businesses and civil society have registered around 5,000 commitments of their own.

National targets cover an average of 22 of the 23 global targets, though many do not address a target’s full scope, and pledges fall well short of the goal of conserving 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030. Many countries have set targets for positive incentives, but far fewer have committed to reducing harmful subsidies.

The targets that need action beyond environment ministries, including business action, sustainable consumption, harmful incentives and finance, are among the furthest behind.

India’s Plan

India released its updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan at the previous CBD conference, COP16 in Cali, Colombia, on 30 October 2024, according to the Press Information Bureau (PIB). The plan sets 23 national biodiversity targets aligned with the global framework, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change prepared it in consultation with 23 central ministries, state-level bodies and communities.

The Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, who released it, described the plan as a vital roadmap for halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, though the CBD’s release on the new report does not mention India.

Sources: CBD press release, 15 October 2026 (report launch, findings, COP17 dates) · CBD media advisory, 12 October 2026 · PIB, India’s updated NBSAP at COP16