Negotiators at COP16 have agreed a roadmap to raise US$200 million by 2030 to conserve nature, more than four months after the summit opened in Cali, Colombia. The agreement, struck at the end of three days of discussions in Rome, will set in train a multilateral process for raising the funds from specified new and existing sources across the public and private sectors. The adoption of the resource mobilisation strategy paves the way for raising the estimated US$200 billion a year needed to achieve the objectives of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), including US$20 billion flowing from rich to developing nations in 2025, rising to US$30 billion in 2030. It sets in motion the establishment of a permanent financial mechanism under the authority of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, ensuring predictable and accessible funding. Parties also reached agreement on a mechanism for planning, monitoring, reporting and review, which will provide common metrics and methods to measure progress against the GBF’s 23 targets and four goals. The Finance for Biodiversity (FfB) Foundation, which represents almost 200 firms with €23 trillion (US$24 trillion) AUM, said the deal provided “clear direction with concrete actions” for aligning financial flows with a nature-positive economy. “Focusing on mainstreaming biodiversity in decision-making, developing sectoral transformation pathways, and redirecting harmful subsidies will support financial institutions in managing nature-related risks and opportunities, and enable the overall alignment of financial flows with biodiversity goals,” said Sonya Likhtman, Associate Director of Engagement at Federated Hermes and Co-chair of the FfB’s public policy advocacy working group.
