Biodiversity and ecosystems are being lost and degraded at an alarming rate. Recognizing this challenge, the World Bank is supporting the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in the development of a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to be adopted at the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Kunming, China in 2020. COP15 will not only take stock of the progress and shortcomings in the implementation of the current Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (2011-2020), but also represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for transformative action.
One of the key issues the post-2020 biodiversity framework will seek to address is resource mobilization. Biodiversity is facing a major financing gap as it continues to rely heavily on public funding, failing to attract private finance at scale. Bridging this gap means that a significant amount of finance for sustainably managing, using and conserving biodiversity will need to come from the private sector moving forward and the barriers to private investment will need to be addressed.
A workshop on “Resource Mobilization in the Convention on Biological Diversity: Harnessing Private Finance” was held in Beijing on November 4-5, 2019 with support of the World Bank, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) of China and the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center (FECO). The objective was to provide technical insights on the role of private sector finance in resource mobilization in the context of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, to be adopted at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Kunming. The workshop examined the key obstacles to, and the enabling environment required for, private sector investment in biodiversity and ecosystems at scale. It also showcased a range of innovative financial instruments that are emerging to connect private capital to environmentally-responsible projects.