The UK environment secretary Thérèse Coffey claimed that the financial sector must be encouraged to make a meaningful investment in nature in order to meet this decade’s UN biodiversity targets.
The Cop15 biodiversity agreement plans to scale global funding for nature to $200bn (£167bn) a year by the end of the decade. Companies and in particular financial institutions are expected to play a significant role in this agreement, partly because a lot of nature-based solutions will meet biodiversity targets and reduce emissions.
Furthermore, the private sector and conservationists were meeting to help avoid some of the pitfalls of the carbon markets and make sure business action on nature was meaningful. As an example, the insurance company Aviva has recently donated £38m to conservation projects to help restore Britain’s temperate rainforests.
The Kunming-Montreal Cop15 agreement, reached in Canada last December, includes a high-profile target to protect 30% of land and sea. After the agreement, Coffey said the UK would focus on improving the health of its protected areas.