The Debrief
Are environmental summits a waste of time?
Are environmental summits a waste of time? | The Debrief with María José Valverde
October 28, 2026
So many summits, so little substance. Or is that really the case?
Three major UN environmental summits are occurring late this year. What do they actually accomplish?
On the ground at COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia, Eurasia Group's María José Valverde looks beyond the speeches and negotiations at the practical initiatives these conferences can produce: funding Indigenous-led conservation, researching cattle that produce less methane, and attracting investment to restore degraded farmland.
“These conferences can do real good,” she explains. But with climate change and nature loss accelerating, can those individual successes add up fast enough?
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