YEREVAN, Armenia — Colombia, Finland and France agreed on Monday, 26 October 2026, to step up efforts to identify and redirect $500 billion a year in subsidies that harm biodiversity, as the 17th United Nations conference on nature in Yerevan reached its midpoint and a new country-led group took charge of driving the reform toward a 2030 deadline.
Illustration: A lush tropical rainforest canopy with diverse wildlife, representing the nature that harmful subsidies put at risk.
What Happened
According to Reuters, which reported from the conference on 26 October 2026, the three countries agreed to accelerate work on subsidies that are often unintentionally harmful to nature. The effort will be led by a group called "Friends of Target 18," headed by Colombia and Finland, which will design a plan and help other countries redirect the money. A formal framework for the group has not yet been agreed, Reuters noted, but the initiative drew broad support at the conference.
The $500 billion figure is not a new pot of money. It is the amount of public subsidies that governments around the world already spend each year in ways that damage ecosystems, according to the globally agreed target the group is named after. The goal, set under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in 2022, is to identify those subsidies by 2025 and then eliminate, phase out, or reform them by 2030, while redirecting the funds toward conservation and sustainable use of nature.
Subsidies counted as harmful can take many forms. Reuters cited examples including payments that encourage the felling of rainforest, and state discounts on fertilisers and pesticides that damage soil and water. In practice, the category spans agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and fossil-fuel support — sectors where public money can lower the cost of activities that degrade habitats, even when that was never the intention of the policy.
The announcement came at the midpoint of COP17, the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Yerevan, Armenia. The conference, which opened on 19 October and runs to 30 October 2026, is the first major checkpoint since the framework's adoption for governments to show how far they have come toward protecting 30 percent of land and seas by 2030 — the "30x30" target at the heart of the agreement.
Illustration: Farmland with tractors and fertiliser fields beside a protected forest, representing the subsidies now under review.
Background
Subsidy reform has long been the least glamorous — and one of the hardest — parts of the biodiversity agenda. Unlike a new protected area, which can be announced with a map and a ceremony, reforming a subsidy means changing the economics of farming, fishing, or energy production for people who depend on it. Governments have often promised reform and then delayed it, fearing higher food prices, lost jobs, or political backlash in rural areas.
The scale of the problem is large. The campaign group Conservation International estimates that harmful subsidies can cost governments between $11 trillion and $24.7 trillion a year once the wider bill is counted, Reuters reported — because governments often, in effect, pay a second time to repair the damage done to the environment, health, or infrastructure. A fertiliser discount that boosts yields this season, for example, can pollute waterways that a government must then clean up, while deforestation driven by cheap land clearance can worsen floods that damage roads and homes.
The Kunming-Montreal framework gave this issue a number: Target 18, which calls on countries to identify harmful incentives by 2025 and reform at least $500 billion a year of them by 2030. Progress has been slow. Many countries have not yet published full inventories of their harmful subsidies, and the 2025 identification milestone passed with much of the work still incomplete — which is why the Yerevan announcement focuses on designing a practical plan and helping countries do the identification work, rather than simply restating the target.
COP17 itself takes place against a sobering backdrop. At the opening of the conference, delegates heard that the world faces a large nature-funding gap, with far less money flowing to conservation than scientists say is needed. Earlier reporting from the summit put that gap at around $200 billion a year. Against that figure, redirecting $500 billion in existing subsidies is significant: it would not require new taxes or new pledges, but a decision to stop spending public money in ways that undermine the very goals governments have set.
Why It Matters
The announcement matters because it moves subsidy reform from a target on paper to a country-led process with named leaders. Colombia brings credibility as a biodiverse country that has championed nature finance in international talks, while Finland brings experience in reforming agricultural and forestry support within the European Union. France's backing adds the weight of another large economy. If the group produces a workable plan — with timelines, methods for identifying harmful subsidies, and support for countries that need it — it could break a logjam that has lasted for years.
It matters for farmers, fishers, and rural communities too, because reform done badly can hurt the people it is meant to help in the long run. The challenge is to redirect money, not simply remove it: support that currently rewards intensive chemical use or land clearance could instead reward practices that protect soil, water, and pollinators — the natural systems on which farming itself depends. How the group's plan handles that transition, including compensation and timing, will determine whether it gains support beyond the conference hall.
It also matters for the credibility of the wider biodiversity framework. The 2030 deadline for the $500 billion reform is now less than four years away, and the 30x30 target depends on it: protecting land and sea is far harder if public money keeps subsidising their destruction next door. A concrete plan emerging from Yerevan would give the next round of national biodiversity strategies — the plans each country submits under the framework — something real to build on.
Finally, the announcement links the nature agenda to the climate talks that follow. With the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkiye, scheduled for November 2026, negotiators there will face parallel questions about fossil-fuel subsidies and land use. A credible biodiversity-subsidy plan could strengthen the case for reform across both agendas, while failure would reinforce scepticism that governments will act on subsidies at all.
Illustration: Delegates at a United Nations nature conference with a mountain city backdrop, representing the COP17 talks in Yerevan.
What Happens Next
The immediate next step is the design of the plan itself. According to Reuters, the Friends of Target 18 group will draw up a plan and help other countries redirect subsidies, but a formal framework has not yet been agreed. Delegates and observers will watch the second half of COP17, which runs to 30 October, for details: which countries join the group, what timetable it sets, and whether it agrees on common methods for identifying harmful subsidies.
National governments will then face the harder work at home: publishing inventories of their subsidies, deciding which ones count as harmful, and designing replacement support. That process is likely to be contested in parliaments and ministries, particularly where farming and fishing lobbies are strong. Countries that move first — and show that redirected support can work — will shape how others follow.
Civil society groups and researchers will also play a scrutiny role. Organisations that track subsidies, including Conservation International and the groups behind the Global Coal Exit List and similar databases, are expected to publish assessments of whether the Yerevan plan matches the scale of the problem. Their figures, including the $11 trillion to $24.7 trillion annual cost estimate, will be used to test whether the $500 billion reform target is a floor or a ceiling.
For readers, the story to follow is not a single announcement but a sequence: the plan's publication, the first national inventories, and the first redirected budgets. If those steps arrive in 2027, the 2030 target remains within reach. If they slip, the Yerevan announcement will be remembered as another well-meant statement at another conference — and the world's nature will keep paying the price of subsidies that work against it.
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FAQ
What was agreed at COP17 in Yerevan on 26 October 2026?
Colombia, Finland and France agreed to step up efforts to identify and redirect $500 billion a year in subsidies harmful to biodiversity, led by a group called Friends of Target 18, headed by Colombia and Finland, according to Reuters.
What is Target 18?
Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls on countries to identify subsidies harmful to biodiversity and to eliminate, phase out, or reform at least $500 billion a year of them by 2030.
What counts as a subsidy harmful to biodiversity?
Examples reported by Reuters include payments that encourage rainforest felling and state discounts on fertilisers and pesticides that damage soil and water. The category also spans agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and fossil-fuel support.
Why do harmful subsidies cost more than their face value?
Conservation International estimates the wider cost at $11 trillion to $24.7 trillion a year, because governments often pay a second time to repair damage to the environment, health, or infrastructure caused by the subsidised activity.
What happens next after the Yerevan announcement?
The Friends of Target 18 group will design a plan and help other countries redirect subsidies, with a formal framework still to be agreed, while national governments face the work of publishing subsidy inventories and redesigning support before the 2030 deadline.
Sources
- Reuters, "Colombia and Finland to lead effort to reform subsidies to protect biodiversity," 26 October 2026.
- Convention on Biological Diversity, Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Target 18 (2022) — background on the $500 billion subsidy-reform goal and the 2030 deadline.
- Associated Press and UN News, COP17 opening coverage, Yerevan, October 2026 (conference dates 19–30 October 2026; nature-funding gap reported at the summit).
- Eco-Business, "COP31 hosts Turkiye and Australia pursue coal expansion ahead of climate talks: Urgewald report," 26 October 2026 (context on fossil-fuel subsidy scrutiny ahead of COP31).
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