Environment ministry hails Yerevan agreement on biodiversity finance at COP17

The environment ministry said Monday that South Korea's delegation to the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity discussed strengthening biodiversity financing and sharing the benefits of digital sequence information, closing a summit that ran a day past its scheduled end.

The meeting in Yerevan, Armenia, opened Oct. 19 under the theme "Taking Action for Nature" and brought together about 20,000 participants from 196 parties, international organizations and expert groups. Kim Ji-young, the ministry's director-general for international cooperation, led the South Korean delegation, which included officials from the foreign, oceans, health and forestry ministries as well as outside experts.

The headline outcome was the first global stocktake of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in Montreal in December 2022 with targets for 2030. Of the 129 parties that had submitted national reports by March, fewer than half reported being on track with their own targets, with a lack of funding and technology cited as the biggest obstacle.

Parties responded with the Yerevan Pathway, which commits them to mobilizing public and private money at home and abroad, expanding support for developing countries and widening participation by local governments, women and young people. They also agreed to release Global Environment Facility funding in time for the eighth national reports, due June 30, 2029, and to convene a technical expert group on monitoring and indicators until the next summit.

On the sharing of benefits from digital sequence information — genetic data used in research that is detached from its country of origin — parties laid groundwork for operating the Cali Fund, launched in October 2024. The meeting agreed on interim allocations from the fund and transitional issuance of contribution certificates, leaving detailed questions such as companies' contribution criteria and the legal effect of the certificates to a working group between sessions.

The final decisions also credited South Korea for its Bio Bridge Initiative, launched at the 2014 summit in Pyeongchang, with the convention's secretariat expressing appreciation for the program, which promotes scientific and technical cooperation among member states.

On the sidelines, the delegation held bilateral meetings with the European Union, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia and Norway.

"This conference was an opportunity to make our efforts to implement the global biodiversity framework known and to exchange with other countries," Kim said. "We will continue to contribute to the international community's biodiversity conservation efforts through technical cooperation and capacity building."

The next conference of the parties is scheduled for 2028 in Ecuador.