Following the 2022 Biodiversity Conference of Parties, the world has been trying to follow the ambitious Global Biodiversity Framework agreement. Recently, they reconvened for the COP16 event in Cali where the focus was on further agreements, resources and plans to ensure the GBF’s success by 2030. At the event, there were some successes and some pitfalls.
Nina Seega, director for sustainable finance, University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in an interview for FinextraTV, reflected on the successes. “There was a new subsidiary body that was established to look at indigenous rights and effective participation of indigenous people and local communities in the CBD […] they did manage to agree an establishment of Cali Fund on the digital sequence information and […] there was also an agreement of alignment of biodiversity and climate.”
However, with such a large task ahead, there was a central theme that kept the problem in need of a solution. That theme surrounded an element of transitory clarity, implementation and financial inclusion.
Seega explained that “we definitely need a continuous ratchet and update of NBSAP’s but if we’re not providing emerging markets and developing economies with the resources to enable them to write a proper NBSAP, to write a proper financing plan, why are we expecting them to do that amount of work?”
National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans underpin the approaches to implementation and so without proper guidance and resourcing, there is the risk of inconsistencies and weak foundations. This is especially relevant to Seega as the CISL, itself, has two missions that focus on enabling effective financial sustainability and an effort to change the system to be more climate conscious.
When clarifying the issue of transitioning policies and evolving targets, Seega said that “when financial institutions and businesses are starting to think about how to incorporate these things, they need one clear strategy and one clear enabling policy framework to go: ‘Okay, I know that we’re transitioning as an economy as a whole and this is where I’m going to send my money to.’”
The scope of the challenge is clear when it comes to both biodiversity and climate and finance’s inclusion into that action is essential. In order for success to be achievable, Seega believes these targets should continue to grow but require more ambitious frameworks with a single, collaborative message: this is what to do and this is how to do it.
