Cop17 at a glance: everything you need to know about the UN’s nature summit

A delegate at Cop15 in Montreal, which set ambitious targets such as protecting 30% of land and sea for nature and reforming $500bn of damaging subsidies. Photograph: A Ivanov/AFP/Getty

This month, nearly every country on Earth will return to the question of how to stem the rapid destruction of the natural world. Humans are driving it, but so far we have not found a way to stop it.

In late 2022, governments reached an ambitious once-in-a-decade deal to better protect nature amid scientific warnings that the planet is going through the largest loss of life since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Now, they are assessing their progress on the targets for the first time.