Overview
- The UNEP midterm report, released Thursday, documents restoration activity on about 252 million hectares in 149 countries and reports more than one million new “green” jobs.
- UNEP says annual funding must rise from roughly $64 billion today to nearly $300 billion by 2030 and estimates scaled investment could create about 32 million nature‑compatible jobs.
- Delegates at COP17 in Yerevan are deadlocked over finance and the treatment of nature‑harmful subsidies, with observers noting that language on subsidy phase‑outs was removed and roughly $500 billion still flows yearly into subsidies that damage habitats.
- Restoration efforts are heavily skewed to land—about 90% of documented measures—with only around 2% of marine/coastal and 4% of freshwater areas reported under regeneration and gaps in monitoring likely understating aquatic action.
- Without clearer funding commitments and enforceable subsidy reform the UN’s 1 billion‑hectare 2030 goal from the 2021–2030 Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the 2022 Kunming–Montreal targets are unlikely to be met, threatening water, food and climate co‑benefits for vulnerable communities.