Open Letter

April 22, 2024 

The CfN Global Steering Committee constitutes the highest-profile political group working to safeguard nature. This esteemed group of former heads of state, ministers, diplomats, and scientists has tirelessly championed the global goal to protect and conserve at least 30% of the world’s lands and waters by 2030. Against the backdrop of increasingly concerning headlines regarding climate change and nature loss, they are urging G7 leaders to prioritize the delivery of commitments made to invest in nature. The full letter can be read here.

Mongabay

19 March, 2024

In January this year, Campaign for Nature, a U.S.-based advocacy group, came out with a report critiquing this new scheme. “We wrote this paper because we didn’t see enough concerns being raised in civil society,” says Mark Opel, finance lead at Campaign for Nature.

Read the full article here.

Carbon Pulse

11 January, 2024

Biodiversity credit markets risk distracting governments from their role in financing nature by taking up limited time and capacity, the non-profitCampaign for Nature has claimed in a paper. “Inflated” claims on the potential scale of voluntary biodiversity credit markets could result in governments abdicating their public responsibilities for nature, the campaign group said. Mark Opel, the conservation finance adviser at Campaign for Nature, said: “Biodiversity credits … enable magical thinking that somehow innovative finance is going to come to the rescue and meet the promises in the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), without any additional government changes in policy.”

Full article here.

China Dialogue

September 18, 2023

O’Donnell believes that voluntary private financing of the Global Biodiversity Framework is a myth. “It’s convenient for governments to try to pass the responsibility off to the private sector, but the only way the private sector will truly fund biodiversity is if it’s required to. Governments either have to put the money up themselves, or create a legal and financial framework that requires or incentivises the private sector to do it.”

Read the full article here.

Vancouver Sun Op-Ed

24 August, 2023

Chief Frank Brown and Russ Feingold

As B.C. faces drought, heatwaves, and the worst wildfire season in history, it is increasingly evident that serious consequences of climate change are with us now. To confront these impacts, scientists have said that we need transformational change, and that must begin with bold action from governments.

Read the full article here.

Climate Home News

28 August, 2023

A new global fund supporting the protection of nature in developing countries has been launched, but questions remain over how it will be financed.The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) aims to help countries reach the nature protection targets set by the breakthrough Kunming-Montreal biodiversity deal signed last year.

The fund, which will contribute to the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s land and water ecosystems by 2030, has been set up by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), a multilateral financial partnership.

Read the full article here.

Media Statement

August 16, 2023

The CfN Global Steering Committee constitutes the highest-profile political group working to safeguard nature. This esteemed group of former heads of state, ministers, diplomats, and scientists has tirelessly championed the 30x30 goal since its inception and is now issuing a clarion call to world leaders to urgently and ambitiously confront the continuing loss of nature and to prioritize commitments made to increase biodiversity financing immediately.

The letter can be read here.

Media Statement

30 June, 2023

The approval by the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) governing board to establish a new fund to finance the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) is a welcome step forward in the urgent need to mobilize more funding for nature in developing countries where biodiversity is concentrated.

Read the full statement.

Nature

20 June, 2023

Brian O’Donnell, the director of Campaign for Nature, a conservation advocacy group based in Durango, Colorado, says that the success of the framework depends on donor countries making good on their pledges to increase biodiversity funding. In addition to agreeing to contribute $30 billion annually by 2030, wealthy countries said that they would help to find $200 billion per year from private and public sources by 2030. But the countries have not yet started to deliver on these promises.

Read more.

Project Syndicate - Op-Ed

5th June, 2023

Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - My work has taken me far and wide, across oceans and vast expanses of land, and I have been lucky enough to see firsthand some of the richest biodiversity hotspots on Earth. But at the end of the day, I always return home – to Liberia, to Africa, which offers the most extraordinary natural landscape and wildlife. The African continent is undoubtedly the planet’s biodiversity powerhouse.

Read more.

Daily Kos - Op-Ed

22 May, 2023

If the US wants 30 by 30 to succeed globally we urgently need all leaders, President Biden included, to publicly affirm their commitment to numeric financial targets, including the financial commitment of $20B in international biodiversity finance from developed to developing countries by 2025. The climate section of the leader’s statement noted the numerical target of $100 billion for international climate finance, and biodiversity requires the same level of specificity for transparency and accountability.

Read more.

Media Statement

May 20, 2023

On the eve of World Biodiversity Day, we, the undersigned, are calling on the wealthiest nations to prioritise urgent action to protect and restore biodiversity and just transition their economies to be nature positive. We are encouraged that the G7 leader’s statement reaffirmed a commitment to the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and pledged to meet its goals and targets. 

Read full statement.

Context News - Op-Ed

18 May, 2023

We are facing two parallel crises: climate change and global biodiversity loss. Climate change has captured most of the headlines, but scientists say the nature crisis is equally or even more important. We can't solve one without solving the other. A landmark assessment of global biodiversity in 2019 warned that nature is declining at rates unprecedented in human history.

Read more.

Carbon Pulse

17th May, 2023

The funds to meet a $20 billion finance target for biodiversity by 2025, a key component of last year’s landmark Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), should not come from biodiversity credits according to the Samoan Minister for Environment speaking during an event on Wednesday, with other stakeholders also suggesting the nascent market is not likely to be ready to scale sufficient finance within less than three years.

Read more.

Bloomberg

September 28, 2022
Almost $1.9 trillion. That’s the amount Moody’s Investors Service says is at stake as biodiversity loss intensifies nature-related risks.

With financial markets currently under siege, concerns about biodiversity probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind for panicked investors. But the long-term ramifications of a depleted natural world are potentially devastating.

High-risk sectors such as coal and metals mining, as well as oil and gas exploration and production, will likely face greater regulatory and investor scrutiny as every day passes. Companies that lack credible management strategies in this arena face the prospect of not only reputational damage, but also serious financial repercussions, Moody’s wrote in a 14-page report.

“Risks such as ecosystem health, biodiversity loss and natural resource management are rising up the policy and investor agenda,” said Rahul Ghosh, managing director of environmental, social and governance issues at Moody’s.

Read More