Is the Goal to Halve Pesticide Risks by 2030 Impossible to Achieve?

by Maiko Takeuchi | 11 March 2026 | Environment, GNV News

GNV News, March 11, 2026

In the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022, it was set as part of the targets that each country should reduce the risks from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals by at least half by 2030.

However, a paper published in the online edition of Science in February 2026 states that achieving this target will be difficult for most countries. The paper also finds that roughly 20 commonly used agricultural pesticides and the major agricultural-producing countries are having negative impacts on biodiversity, and that in order to get closer to the COP15 target, it will be necessary to expand the adoption of organic farming and shift to less toxic pesticides.

Specifically, the paper employs an analytical method called Total Applied Toxicity (TAT). Previous global studies either focused on a limited number of pesticides or species, or relied solely on usage volume. TAT makes it possible to understand not only the amount of pesticides used but also how harmful each chemical is to living organisms. Thus, TAT has been presented as having significance in that it has developed a new global standard method for measuring the harm pesticides cause to ecosystems, and at the United Nations, TAT guidelines are scheduled to be finalized in June 2026.

Using this TAT method, the paper combines toxicity data on 625 pesticides for 65 countries between 2013 and 2019 with data on impacts on eight different taxonomic groups—such as aquatic invertebrates, plants, fish, and pollinating insects—to examine trends in TAT. The analysis shows that over this period, TAT increased globally; in other words, the negative impacts of pesticides on ecosystems have been growing. In particular, it reveals that four major agricultural producers—Brazil, China, India, and the United States—account for more than half (53–68%) of global TAT, that TAT is increasing worldwide for most taxonomic groups, and furthermore that fruits and vegetables, corn, soybeans, cereals, rice, and other grains together account for more than three-quarters (76–83%) of global TAT.

Learn more about reporting on biodiversity → “How International News Misses the Biodiversity Crisis”