The financial industry must be encouraged to invest in nature conservation to achieve the UN biodiversity targets for this decade, according to the UK environment secretary.
Thérèse Coffey, addressing an event at Lancaster House in London to mobilize private finance after Cop15, stated that the private sector had a crucial part to play in achieving the agreement to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems reached in this decade.
Companies and financial institutions are anticipated to play a major role in the agreement’s goal to increase global funding for nature to $200bn (£167bn) annually by the end of the decade.
Friday, at an event sponsored by the UK government, environment ministers, philanthropic organizations, and Indigenous leaders met with chief executives and representatives of financial institutions to discuss the next steps following the Cop15 biodiversity agreement. It was followed by a luncheon with King Charles at Buckingham Palace.
Companies and investors are encouraged to do more to achieve biodiversity and climate objectives, as the World Economic Forum has identified failure to do so as a growing danger to global prosperity.
Nature-based solutions will achieve biodiversity goals
“The structure is worldwide. We will play our part [in mobilizing financial resources], but it must not be always the typical players. Because many nature-based solutions will accomplish biodiversity goals and reduce emissions, Coffey said businesses and financiers must lead this effort.
The secretary of the environment stated that the private sector and environmentalists were meeting at an early stage to help prevent some of the pitfalls of carbon markets and to ensure that business action on nature was meaningful.
The insurance company Aviva recently contributed £38 million to conservation projects to help restore Britain’s temperate rainforests, a key focus of environmental activists in recent years, which they say could be revitalized across a fifth of the island.
After the agreement, Coffey stated that the United Kingdom would concentrate on improving the health of its protected areas. Many of which conservationists referred to as “paper parks.” The Kunming-Montreal Cop15 agreement, signed in Canada last December, aims to preserve 30% of land and sea.
There is already a significant quantity of protected land in the United Kingdom. I am aware that much of that is not in the condition it should be in. Coffey stated, “I’m therefore very eager for not only Defra but also Natural England and the Environment Agency, to have a real emphasis on how we can improve, for instance, the condition of sites of particular scientific interest.” “Another element under consideration is farming subsidies. Again, some planning is required to target some of our most deforested regions.”
Goals of the Cop15
One of the goals of the Cop15 agreement was to make nature disclosures obligatory for businesses. She did not indicate whether the government would propose legislation to that effect.
Christophe Béchu, France’s minister of the environment, stated that domestic changes to financing for nature should be a priority after the agreement, particularly the repurposing of some of the $1.8 trillion in yearly subsidies that are harmful to the environment.
“For the sake of biodiversity, each nation can prevent the loss of numerous species within its borders. For this reason, there is a strong focus on domestic funding for conservation. In every nation in the world, redirecting harmful subsidies is the top priority. In China, the United States, France, and everywhere else, there are repurposable oil and pesticide handouts, he said.
