Daily report 25.02.2025

 

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation

Rome, February 25.02.2025

The Concluding Round of the Conference of Parties’ 16th edition of United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD COP 16.2) is underway in the FAO HQ in Rome. The highlight of the COP 16 (2) is the launch of the Cali Fund, with a target of USD 30 Billion per year by 2030 to mitigate Biodiversity Loss.

At a Press Conference today UNCBD spokesperson David Ainsworth said many public finance institutions have pledged funding to the tune of 160 Million USD but more funding is expected to pour in starting 1st April 2025.

Reminder of the key issues in Rome:

1 - Who owns the biodiversity bank account: the deadlock needs to be broken between the EU, DRC, Brazil and others on where to house money for nature, and who gets to govern that bank account

2 - Who should pay into the biodiversity bank account: governments must agree a plan for how to meet $200bn a year by 2030 for nature

3 - Finance and environment ministers must commit to a working group to deliver the finance: if governments want to reach the $200bn target, it’s going to need a concerted push from ministers more than once every 2 years 

4 - Cali Fund kick off: businesses profiting from nature's genetic information were given a bill they should be paying for nature in Colombia. We need to see some commitments to the fund 

Tensions ran high in Colombia over where to house nature’s money. The DRC and Brazil were amongst those that wanted a dedicated way of collecting and distributing finance for biodiversity. They’ve had enough of the Global Environment Facility, which they claim takes as long to get money out of as it takes to get taxes out of Trump. The latest suggestion is for countries to take time between now and COP18 to decide what instrument is needed, and bring it into reality at COP19 in 2030. 

Struggling

Without the finance, 50% of countries are reportedly not meeting promises to protect 30% of land and sea by 2050. 137 countries have put forward either a full plan for protecting and restoring nature, or parts of one. 

EU financing

The EU and its Member States are the main providers of international biodiversity funding. The Commission already announced a doubling of its international biodiversity financing to €7 billion for the 2021-2027 period. It is already delivering on important flagship projects, such as the €1.4 billion NaturAfrica initiative.

Most of the support is provided as part of bilateral cooperation and is aimed at supporting partners in implementing the GBF. In addition, the EU aims to leverage additional funding from domestic or private sources mobilising a large toolbox (blending, guarantees, green bonds).

The European sustainable financing initiative will help to direct additional finance to support investments in biodiversity. The EU budget allocates 10% for biodiversity-related activities in the EU from 2026 onwards. It is also integrating biodiversity into other funding programmes while maximising synergies with our climate agenda. 

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework sets ambitious targets for biodiversity finance, both domestically and internationally. In Montreal, parties agreed to increase global biodiversity financing to $200 billion per year by 2030. This financing should come from all sources: domestic and international, public and private. Donor countries also committed to increase international biodiversity finance to $20 billion by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030. 

 

 

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