REVERSING NATURE LOSS MUST BE MATCHED WITH SUFFICIENT FINANCING

The CBD’s COP15 represents a historic opportunity to kick-start transformative change and reverse biodiversity loss this decade. But for any global plan for nature to succeed, it must be matched with sufficient financing agreements.

More money alone will not be enough. What is needed is both an increase in “financing green” and “greening finance”, meaning we need to invest much more into nature, but at the same time ensure that no investments, neither from public nor private actors, are continuing to harm nature and the climate.

That is why aligning public and private financial flows with the goals and targets of the global biodiversity framework needs to be at the top of the financing discussion at COP15.

Photo: © Green Renaissance / WWF-US

WE RELY ON NATURE

Research from the World Economic Forum shows that US$ 44 trillion in economic value generation - around half of global GDP - is highly or moderately dependent on nature. That gives some indication of how reliant on nature we are for our work, our food, our homes, our economies. In reality, nature powers all industry and enterprise.

The problem is that we often take what we need from nature without including the cost of environmental degradation in prices and markets.

Now it’s time to change. All countries must properly value nature in economic decision-making and significantly step up finance for biodiversity if we are to have any chance of securing a nature-positive world by 2030. And central banks and financial supervisors must actively address climate change and nature loss. Financial flows from all sources, public and private, must be aligned with nature-positive activity.

THE STAKES ARE HIGH

Including a comprehensive finance and resource mobilization strategy in the global biodiversity framework is critical to successfully implement new biodiversity targets, drive transformational change and deliver a nature-positive global economy that realizes the promise of the UN Sustainable Development Goals - prosperity for all on a healthy planet.

Resources from all sources - public, private, domestic, and international - must be significantly increased.

Crucially we need to see an increase in public finance for biodiversity, in particular to support developing countries in the global south to implement biodiversity objectives and help unlock and scale up private investment. Biodiversity loss is a global crisis. It must be addressed in global solidarity and cooperation, which also means supporting those countries with the remaining Key Biodiversity Areas within their territories and where populations already suffer the most from the combined impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss.

In addition, domestic financing, needs to be increased in all countries. This is currently by far the largest part of global biodiversity financing. National Biodiversity Finance Plans can help governments to assess their exact needs, find funding sources most effectively, spend money most efficiently and, importantly, achieve policy coherence across sectors and ministries to ensure that biodiversity financing in one area is not unintentionally countered by harmful spending elsewhere.

At COP15 there is an unprecedented opportunity for all countries to come together to direct global financial flows towards nature-positive outcomes, and the global biodiversity framework can help create the right conditions for action.

ADDITIONAL STICKING POINTS

There is still much work to be done to close the global biodiversity finance gap, which some estimates put at around $700 billion per year. This financing gap is calculated through a combination of the total funding needed to realise a nature-positive world and the known financial flows that are contributing to the destruction of nature, such as environmentally harmful subsidies and investments.

NATURE POSITIVE FINANCE

Sadly, $1.8 trillion a year in environmentally harmful subsidies from governments are encouraging unsustainable production and consumption, exhausting natural resources, degrading global ecosystems, and damaging planetary health. This is bad news for nature and bad news for a sustainable future.

The new framework must include ambitious targets to urgently assess, reform and repurpose perverse subsidies that harm the environment and to implement and scale up public incentives with nature-positive outcomes. There are many opportunities, such as investing in renewable energy and nature-based solutions that benefit both biodiversity and climate action. Every $1 spent on nature restoration promises to deliver up to $30 in economic benefits, and transitioning to a nature-positive economy could generate annual business opportunities worth $10 trillion and create 395 million jobs by 2030.

Crucially, finance must reach indigenous peoples and local communities who live in and safeguard some of the most biodiverse places on the planet. We cannot hope to meet global targets for nature without their participation, knowledge and leadership. Through an approach called Project Finance for Permanence, for example, governments can strengthen conservation, reinforce the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, reduce the impacts of climate change, and catalyze economic growth.

WIDE SUPPORT

Recently, we’ve seen progress in many areas, including a 10-point plan for financing biodiversity endorsed by 16 countries that aims to fast-track action in developing countries. The Global Environment Facility (GEF), UNDP and UNEP have committed to fast-tracking activities that support governments to implement the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

However much more needs to be done. International financial flows need to be transformed so that they incentivize nature-positive production, instead of harming nature. And financial institutions should follow guidance from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and report and act on evolving nature-related risks - benefiting people and business in the long term.

Countries must now step-up and set ambitious and comprehensive targets in the GBF.