The UK environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey has said financial sector is ‘critical’ to stemming biodiversity loss and urged stakeholders in the sector to invest in nature conservation so that the world could meet this decade’s UN biodiversity targets.
Coffey said this at an event at Lancaster House in London to mobilise private finance after Cop15 where a landmark deal was signed last December by about 200 countries to protect 30% of the world by 2030, where she also said the private sector had a critical role to play in meeting this decade’s deal to stem the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems.
Part of the agreement reached in Montreal where the Cop15 conference was held last December includes a target to scale global funding for nature to $200bn (£167bn) a year by the end of the decade, while an improved involvement is expected from companies and financial institutions.
The Lancaster House event had environment ministers, philanthropic organisations, Indigenous leaders, chief executives and representatives of financial institutions converged to discuss the next steps after the Cop15 biodiversity agreement and was followed by a reception at Buckingham Palace with King Charles.
The World Economic Forum sees as a rising threat to global prosperity the failure of companies and investors to do more to meet biodiversity and climate goals.
“The framework is global. We will play our role [mobilising finance] but it’s critical that it’s not always the usual players. It’s critical that we get businesses and financiers to be a key element of this, partly because a lot of nature-based solutions will meet biodiversity targets, as well as reduce emissions,” Coffey was quoted as saying, adding that the private sector and conservationists were meeting at an early stage to help avoid some of the pitfalls of carbon markets and make sure business action on nature was meaningful.
Conservation projects to help restore Britain’s temperate rainforests which has been a key focus of environmental campaigners in recent years was given a boost with a recent £38m donation from the insurance company Aviva and Coffey said the UK would focus on improving the health of its protected areas, many of which were considered “paper parks” by conservationists.
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“There’s already a substantial amount of protected land [in the UK]. What I’m conscious about is that a lot of that is not in the state it should be. That’s why I’m very keen for, not only Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs], but bodies like Natural England and the Environment Agency to have a real focus on how we improve, for example, the state of the sites of special scientific interest,” said Coffey. “The other aspect we are thinking through is farming payments. Again, there’s some targeting to be done to target some of our most nature-depleted areas.”
However, she did not say whether the government would introduce legislation to make nature disclosures mandatory for business, which was one of the targets in the Cop15 agreement.
Speaking at the same event, France’s environment minister, Christophe Béchu said domestic changes to funding for nature should be a key focus after the agreement, especially repurposing some of the $1.8tn of annual subsidies that are harmful to the environment.
“For biodiversity, each country can stop a lot of extinctions of species in their own countries. That’s why when it comes to money, there’s a big emphasis on domestic finance for conservation. In every country in the world, the first priority is to redirect harmful subsidies … in China, the US, in France, everywhere, there are subsidies for oil or pesticides that can be repurposed,” he said.
Story was adapted from The Guardian
