WASHINGTON, DC—Four years ago, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, hailed at the time as the “Paris agreement for nature.” But the first assessment of the framework’s implementation, released at October’s UN Biodiversity Conference (COP17) in Yerevan, makes for sobering reading. The State of Biodiversity Action report finds that while nearly 90% of countries have set targets to protect 30% of land and sea areas, restore 30% of degraded ecosystems, and halt human-caused extinctions, fewer than half of the assessed targets are on track to be met by 2030.

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres called COP17 “our moment of accountability.” But while accountability is long overdue, finding a solution requires accurately diagnosing the problem. The Kunming-Montreal framework is faltering not because governments are indifferent to nature,........

© Project Syndicate