According to the U.N.’s environment watchdog, investments in safeguarding and effectively managing the world’s ecosystems must more than quadruple to $384 billion per year by 2025 in order to combat the risks posed by climate change and the depletion of natural resources.
COP-15
The report comes a week before world leaders will gather at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada, where they are set to negotiate an agreement that aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
“Nature-Positive” Goals
UNEP is calling on governments to agree on a clear framework for countries to require the financial sector to align its activities with “nature-positive” goals.
“The science is undeniable.” “As we transition to net-zero emissions by 2050, we must also reorient all human activity to ease the pressure on the natural world on which we all depend,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.
“This requires governments, business, and finance to massively step up investments in nature-based solutions because investments in nature are investments in securing the future for generations to follow.”
Nature-based solutions are actions to protect, manage, or restore natural ecosystems and are already well-documented as being critical to any response to climate change. The World Bank estimates that nature-based solutions can reduce by 37% the carbon emission reductions that are needed by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement goals.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has also pointed to nature-based solutions, such as biodiversity preservation, as key to realistic emissions reductions.
“Phasing out coal and decarbonizing the energy systems will not be enough without adjacent massive investments in nature-based solutions,” the report found.
“Politicians, business and finance leaders, and citizens globally must transform their relationship with nature to work with it rather than against it.”
