It is easy to think of humans as existing separately from nature. However, the greatest threats to humanity come from crises affecting nature, not least climate change, biodiversity loss and rampant pollution. We cannot address any of these until we stop taking nature for granted and start investing more in it.
“Nature-positive” investments in marine conservation, sustainable land management, water security and afforestation could deliver around 30 percent of the emissions abatement needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C — the target enshrined in the Paris climate agreement. Moreover, such investments not only improve our resilience to climate change, but they also would help to prevent future pandemics.
Ahead of the 16th UN Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, this month, we must remember that the crises affecting nature also pose structural risks to the global economy, our collective well-being and prosperity, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. About 55 percent of global GDP is highly or moderately dependent on nature.
Illustration: Yusha
In Cali, delegates from nearly 200 countries would discuss how to accelerate action to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and maritime areas, reduce pollution and restore degraded ecosystems by 2030. One of the key obstacles to meeting these ambitious targets is financing. Not only do we invest far too much in activities that harm nature and make our problems worse, but we also invest only one-third of what is needed to meet the 2030 targets for climate, biodiversity and land degradation.
INVESTMENT PRIORITIES
To scale up nature-positive investment, we need to do four things.
First, we must build more effective public-private partnerships between countries and public development banks, as well as with nature organizations, companies and private-sector financial institutions. This would help de-risk investments, prepare projects, and deliver impact at scale for climate, nature and inclusive economic development.
Second, we need to revive and mainstream regenerative practices and stewardship of biodiversity, particularly in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors.
Third, we need common principles, standards and disclosure mechanisms to track nature-positive finance and its impact, and to disclose more information on the nature-related footprints, dependencies, and risk exposure of companies and financial institutions.
Finally, to take nature into consideration in all policies and investment decisions, we must decrease the flow of financing to activities that are harmful to nature.
Multilateral development banks would play a key role in scaling up green investments. Institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) are already stepping up support for the protection, restoration and sustainable use of nature with the launch of common principles for tracking nature-positive finance. Such information is essential for measuring and incorporating nature into multilateral lenders’ operations, as well as informing other investors about what constitutes a nature-positive investment. Partnerships and joint efforts to put these principles into practice are ongoing.
At the European level, the EIB is working closely with the European Commission to support the implementation of the EU’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy worldwide. We strive to ensure that all the projects we finance cause “no loss” of biodiversity, and we are factoring biodiversity and ecosystem considerations into all our activities.
Moreover, because one of the biggest challenges in scaling up nature-positive investments lies in structuring projects, we are providing advisory services to help nature-restoration and biodiversity initiatives get off the ground.
FINANCIAL MOBILIZATION
In Morocco, the EIB advised and lent 100 million euros (US$109 million) to preserve and restore more than 600,000 hectares of forest.
In Ivory Coast, we are gearing up to support sustainable cocoa farming, in which forests are preserved rather than cut down. To support marine conservation, we are working with partner institutions on the very successful Clean Oceans Initiative, which is ahead of schedule in providing 4 billion euros for projects to limit plastic waste.
Innovative financial instruments that transfer risk could help mobilize more public and private finance for such investments. The EIB-financed Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, for example, provides finance and technical assistance for sustainable agriculture and forestry around the world, and the EcoEnterprises Fund supports pro-biodiversity businesses in Latin America.
The EIB is also exploring a new investment in a fund that supports afforestation, forest management and conservation projects in the region. At COP16, we hope to build on such initiatives to scale up financing for nature.
We urgently need to reduce the flow of finance to activities that harm nature. Doing so is central to overcoming the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.
Ambroise Fayolle is vice president of the European Investment Bank.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI
KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) recent visit to Beijing and her upcoming visit to Washington will serve as a high-level test of her diplomatic mettle. In Beijing, Cheng was received with symbolic gestures, a warm reception, and high-level access. In Washington, she will receive far less pomp and far sharper questions about the KMT’s vision for the future of Taiwan. Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence. Cheng’s April 7-12 visit to mainland China coincided with an intense period of conflict in Iran. Despite the strategic significance of Cheng’s trip,
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the vast Asian chemicals industry into a tailspin. Deprived of the likes of Qatari natural gas and Saudi Arabian oil, the region’s fertilizer and plastics plants are slowing production or even shutting down. Everywhere except China, that is. In petrochemicals, China is unique. As well as a traditional industry that uses oil and gas as feedstock, it has parallel output that relies on its abundant domestic coal. Unsurprisingly, India and other regional powers want to copy and paste the Chinese method. This would not be easy — or climate friendly. The
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto says he knows how to fix the problems facing Indonesia. Yet his economic mismanagement and authoritarian tendencies are steering the nation toward a familiar mix of currency instability and political chaos. The world’s fourth-most populous nation risks reversing the hard-won democratic and business reforms that came after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. At that time, the rupiah collapsed and the political upheaval that followed forced former president Haji Mohamed Suharto from power. Prabowo’s administration is ignoring similar warning signs. That disconnect was apparent in a national address on Wednesday, when Prabowo projected the swagger that has
RSS