Nature cannot wait: Steven Guilbeault urges action now despite global

The woods behind La Tuque, Quebec, were slated for clearing by property developers when the author was five years old. Her mother urged her to climb one of the trees in protest, then informed the developers with a straight face that she could do nothing when they asked her to bring the child down. The tree was felled a few days later regardless.

From Montreal to Yerevan

That memory returned in the small hours of a frigid December 2022 morning in Montreal, as the gavel sealed a worldwide pact among nearly 200 nations to stop and reverse nature loss by 2030. Nature matters for health, food security and economies — and the passion surrounding its protection can inspire people everywhere. Despite differing national circumstances, interests and levels of responsibility, the commitments made then retain the capacity to deliver longer-term stability for billions of people across borders. Under the agreement, 30% of the world's land and oceans would be protected, with $200bn (£150bn) a year channeled into nature. Signatories conceded that far more money flowed into destroying nature than protecting it, pledging to tackle $500bn of subsidies contributing to the problem. Nearly four years on, those promises remain unfulfilled. The context has shifted: war, extreme weather and homes swept away or burned to the ground are becoming routine, and public finances are strained everywhere. Leaders feel pressure to choose between biodiversity — seen as a "nice-to-have" — and policies that look like self-preservation.

A False Choice

That is a false dichotomy. Nature is a critical asset for national prosperity and economic security, and the evidence already exists. Farmers in France who relied on biodiversity instead of chemical fertilisers watched crops thrive through extreme drought. In Brazil, Indigenous fire brigades have cut blazes by more than 20% in parts of the Cerrado and Amazon, regions vital to the soya and commodity trade with the global north. To environment ministers preparing for the biodiversity summit opening this week in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, the warnings are predictable: budgets are tight; there's a war, an election, a trade dispute. Nature can wait for a better year. But there might not be a better year — there is only the one you are in. The author and some ministerial colleagues who sat alongside her in Montreal four years ago agree the ship can be turned around, starting with three clear steps in Yerevan. Ministers must set a timetable and interim milestone to deliver the $30bn public finance promise by 2030, having just fallen short of the $20bn target for 2025. Overseas development finance dropped 23% last year — the largest drop on record — and is expected to decline further before the end of 2026. Biodiversity-specific funding within that has fallen 17%. Countries such as the UK publicly acknowledge that ecosystems such as the Congo basin and the Amazon rainforest are also critical for food security within their own borders. Investing in nature overseas is not charity — it is a sure bet on stable food import costs among other things.

Subsidies and the Ocean Gap

Finance ministers should meet within the next two years to set out a plan for turning off the tap on subsidies that undermine economic security. Four years remain to start shifting $500bn of harmful subsidies — no longer an issue solely for environment ministries. Harmful subsidies have rocketed to $2.6tn in recent years. Across countries' biodiversity plans, only 15% had plans to address the gap. The quantity of money spent on destroying nature is 30 times higher than what is going into protecting and restoring it. Ministers must also draw up an action plan for closing the gap between terrestrial and marine ecosystem protection, building on all the tools used for land and pushing for progress at the first ever Ocean Cop in New York in January next year. According to national commitments, 27% of terrestrial land is protected — something to celebrate — while oceans have just 12% similarly covered by protective agreements. Ocean ecosystems are remarkable and humbling places with unfathomable potential. The species yet to be discovered, the carbon and heat they absorb each year, and the buffers against extreme weather that coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs can provide are well worth the cost of investing in protection. To the ministers heading to Armenia: this Cop is your tree. In Montreal, nearly 200 countries climbed up together. In Yerevan, the pressure to climb back down will be intense. Those ministers should not give in to it. Do not let them cut it down. There is no better year coming, only this one, and the choice to drive forward the goals we all set together back in 2022.