Countries meeting at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan have identified further efforts needed to mobilise biodiversity-related finance and meet Target 19 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, particularly its provisions on financial resources.
A draft decision issued on 30 October takes note of the review of the 2025–2030 strategy for resource mobilisation, conducted as part of the first global review of collective progress under the framework. The document also acknowledges the need to close the biodiversity financing gap and notes that public international biodiversity finance currently comes from a limited number of countries and sources.
The draft proposes criteria for the institutional structure operating the Convention’s financial mechanism. The Global Environment Facility and other relevant financial institutions, including multilateral development banks, would be invited to consider those criteria as they reform or improve their operations.
Before COP18, the Subsidiary Body on Implementation would review progress by existing financial entities in meeting the criteria. It would also prepare elements for a possible decision on whether to establish a new financial entity, confirm existing entities or use a combination of both. The body would additionally conduct a stocktake of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund and recommend how to respond to its findings.
The text calls for measures to mobilise new and additional resources from all sources, while stressing that proposed actions to address barriers to effective biodiversity finance would be voluntary. It also requests an assessment of existing financial instruments and entities in relation to implementation of the framework, especially Target 19(a).
The draft further highlights studies on debt sustainability, safeguards in biodiversity finance mechanisms and the relationship between biodiversity and climate finance. Governments are invited to consider these studies when developing approaches to biodiversity finance, including the possible use of debt-related instruments without creating additional conditions or restricting national fiscal space.
Parties, governments, financial institutions and other stakeholders are also invited to take voluntary safeguard guidelines into account when designing and implementing biodiversity financing mechanisms. The document encourages capacity-building, stronger application of safeguards and the sharing of case studies and lessons through the Convention’s clearing-house mechanism.
Sources: Carbon Brief.