Why Finance Matters
Resource Mobilization is a critical element to ensure the successful implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (the “GBF”) agreed upon at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP15.
To deliver on the GBF, governments agreed to a number of ambitious financial targets including:
1. Developed countries providing $20 billion in international finance to developing nations by 2025, and $30 billion by 2030;
2. Increasing the level of financial resources from all sources by 2030, mobilising at least $200 billion per year;
3. Identifying by 2025 and eliminating, phasing out, or reforming subsidies harmful to nature by $500 billion per year by 2030;
4. Mainstreaming biodiversity across sectors and aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity;
5. Enhancing the role of collective actions by Indigenous Peoples and local communities;
6. And supporting the establishment and allocation of funds towards the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.
What Can Governments Do?
It is vital governments recognize that fulfilling their commitments is not a case of charity; this is an investment in our collective future and as such we are calling on the governments of the wealthiest nations to maintain the momentum created by the Kunming-Montreal agreement by actioning the following:
Outline a clear plan, with specific milestones, for delivering on their commitment to provide $20 billion in nature financing by 2025 by the end of this year.
Establish and implement a detailed road map to deliver significantly more finance directly to Indigenous Peoples and local communities, recognizing that currently, less than 1% of nature finance goes to Indigenous Peoples and local communities while they serve as custodians of roughly 80% of the world’s biodiversity.
Ensure nature finance features prominently on the agendas of key global events including The G20, the UN General Assembly, UNFCC COPs, and the Annual World Bank Group and IMF Meetings.
Drive ambition for nature on a par with climate and development in the proposals for the restructuring of the global financial system.
Where Do We Find the Money?
The world is already spending $1.8 trillion each year on subsidies that are driving the destruction of ecosystems and causing species to go extinct.
The $20 billion package is equivalent to only 1.1%, or about four days, of those subsidies.
To put things in perspective it is also less than some oil companies' quarterly profits: Aramco made $31 billion in the first quarter of 2023 alone.