10th October 2023
Back in 2021 the UN environment programme reported that not enough money was being put into the Global Biodiversity Framework fund – there was an annual funding gap of $6 – 8 billion. Given that to achieve the objective of protecting and enhancing biodiversity, investment would need to triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2050, they concluded that public sources of finances would be insufficient.(1) Private finance would need to carry more of the responsibility. Indeed business has a vested interest in doing so, for biodiversity risk = business risk. At the same time, working with and for nature offers opportunities for jobs and business returns.
A new GBFF was launched at the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity COP15 held in December 2022. To engage business finance in this fund, ‘investors are calling on governments to adopt measures within the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework which would set a clear mandate for the alignment of financial flows with the preservation of global biodiversity, like Article 2.1(C) did within the Paris Agreement (a legally binding international treaty on climate change)’. (2)
Business investors need governments to provide reliable, effective and enforceable green policies.
(2) https://www.unepfi.org/themes/ecosystems/cop15statement/
The Green Tau 