More than half of the world’s countries have now met a United Nations call to submit new national pledges aimed at addressing severe nature loss, though the milestone arrives two years behind the original schedule, according to a recent analysis by Carbon Brief.
The renewed commitments—officially known as national biodiversity strategies and action plans, or NBSAPs—were originally requested by the UN to be submitted ahead of the pivotal COP16 biodiversity summit held in Cali, Colombia, in October 2024. However, after a sluggish initial response that saw a mere 15 percent of nations meet that initial deadline, the global community faced a significant diplomatic hurdle. Recognizing the urgency of the shortfall, delegates at COP16 agreed to a new negotiating text that formally "urged" countries to release their missing NBSAPs "as soon as possible."
Fresh analysis indicates that persistent international pressure and ongoing technical support have yielded notable progress. A total of 113 countries have now come forward with new NBSAPs, marking a substantial increase from the 55 nations that had complied just a year prior. This means that approximately 58 percent of the world’s 196 participating parties have met the core UN call.
The updated figures emerge as government delegates, policy experts, and environmental ministers prepare to gather in Yerevan, Armenia, for the upcoming COP17 biodiversity summit. The upcoming conference marks a critical juncture for international environmental policy, representing the exact halfway point of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Adopted as a landmark agreement in Montreal in 2022, the GBF established a sweeping global mission to halt and reverse the alarming decline of the natural world by 2030.
COP17 is expected to provide the stage for the first comprehensive global review of countries’ collective progress toward meeting the ambitious targets laid out in the framework.
Global Review and the Road to 2030
When nearly every nation on Earth signed onto the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in Canada in late 2022, they committed to a comprehensive architecture designed to rescue the planet’s collapsing ecosystems. The core mission of the framework—to halt and reverse biodiversity loss within the decade—is underpinned by a granular list of 23 distinct targets for 2030.
These targets cover an expansive, interconnected range of environmental and economic topics. They include mandates for restoring degraded ecosystems, integrating climate change mitigation with conservation efforts, and providing developing nations with adequate international finance to help shoulder the immense costs of protecting domestic nature reserves and wildlife.
To ensure accountability, the GBF and its underlying governance documents established a rigid schedule for monitoring national progress. This framework mandated the preparation of a comprehensive global progress report coordinated directly by the United Nations. This UN report pulls together data from individual national targets, newly minted NBSAPs, and seventh national reports, which countries were formally required to submit earlier this year. The resulting compilation will serve as the primary foundational document for the global review undertaken by parties at COP17.
Carbon Brief’s tracking confirms that out of the 196 parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 113 have now fulfilled the requirement to produce a new NBSAP. While the 58 percent compliance rate demonstrates a major acceleration in global governance, the geographical distribution of these submissions reveals important regional trends and lingering gaps among major economic and ecological powers.
Regional Shifts and Missing Megadiverse Nations
Over the past year, significant momentum has been observed across the African continent, where a large wave of nations has successfully published new NBSAPs. Among the African countries releasing formal updated plans are Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Similar strides have been made across South America. Notably, Brazil—recognized globally as the most biodiverse nation on Earth—has released its new NBSAP, alongside regional neighbors Belize and Chile. Meanwhile, the host nation for the upcoming COP17 summit, Armenia, published its official biodiversity strategy in April.
Despite this widespread compliance, critical gaps remain among some of the world’s most ecologically significant territories. Under the rules of the GBF, nations that found themselves unable to meet the comprehensive NBSAP deadline ahead of COP16 were permitted to submit standalone national targets instead. Unlike full NBSAPs, these national targets simply outline high-level biodiversity goals without detailing the operational, legislative, or financial plans required for their implementation.
Alarmingly, four of the world’s officially designated megadiverse nations—countries that collectively account for the vast majority of Earth’s remaining species—have still not published new, comprehensive NBSAPs. These nations are Papua New Guinea, Peru, South Africa, and the United States.
The absence of the United States remains a unique diplomatic hurdle; the US stands as the only UN member state that is not a formal signatory to the underlying UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Additionally, Russia, which encompasses the largest land area of any country on Earth, has likewise failed to produce a new NBSAP.
Despite these high-profile omissions, secondary compliance metrics show broader engagement. By the conclusion of COP16, roughly 119 parties had produced at least one national target. Over the subsequent two years, that figure has climbed to 175, representing approximately 89 percent of countries worldwide. Furthermore, while only about half of all nations managed to meet the initial February deadline to produce their seventh national reports, that compliance rate has since risen to 73 percent.
Funding Challenges and International Support
Throughout the two-year period following the COP16 summit, many developing countries repeatedly voiced concerns that severe financial constraints were the primary barrier preventing them from finalizing their NBSAPs. Crafting rigorous, science-based national strategies requires extensive data collection, stakeholder consultations, and institutional capacity that many lower-income economies struggle to fund independently.
To address this bottleneck, multilateral financial mechanisms were mobilized. According to a spokesperson for the Global Environment Facility (GEF)—the principal multilateral fund tasked with supporting NBSAP preparation—significant strides have been made in clearing financial backlogs. The GEF reported that out of 139 developing countries that requested financial support following COP16, a total of 120 had successfully accessed the necessary resources.
Efforts have continued to address the remaining administrative and logistical hurdles. Representatives from the UN Environment Programme noted that international bodies have been actively working to resolve outstanding issues, ensuring that the final group of 19 countries can secure the financial assistance required to complete their national biodiversity plans as the international community prepares for the debates in Yerevan.
