UN urges more investment to protect natural ecosystems
Financial flows to nature-based solutions must grow 2.5 times to US$384b in 2025, report says
The world needs to quickly pour more money into protecting and restoring natural ecosystems so that they can help humanity limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to a report by the United Nations yesterday.
Financial flows to so-called nature-based solutions must grow nearly 2.5 times to US$384 billion in 2025 from US$154 billion per year now, according to the State of Finance for Nature report published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Economics of Land Degradation initiative.
Annual investments in such solutions need to reach US$484 billion in 2030 and US$674 billion in 2050 – more than four times the current level. However, the UNEP argues, such investments will pay off by addressing social, economic and biodiversity challenges as well as helping with climate change.
The amount looked like a “very steep challenge” but was actually a relatively small investment given that around half of the global gross domestic product of about US$44 trillion depends on “healthy and well-functioning ecosystems”, Ivo Mulder, head of UNEP’s climate finance unit, said at a media briefing.
“If we put nature really at the heart of some of the defining societal challenges, and knowing that about 50 per cent of global GDP is dependent on healthy and well-functioning ecosystems, it shouldn’t be too hard of a stretch, even if we are living through multiple crises,” Mulder said, citing the war in Ukraine and its impact on energy and food prices.
“If we keep on failing to act in the face of the crises that we’re facing, it will simply delay the inevitable, which is that we’ll ultimately have to put this much more front and centre of how we arrange our economies.”
The launch of the report comes before the UN Biodiversity Conference, known as COP15, which will be held in Montreal, Canada, from December 7 to 19. The first phase of the conference was hosted by China in Kunming last year.
Delegates at the meeting are expected to adopt a framework intended to set new goals to conserve biodiversity and reverse nature loss.
“We will likely be seeing a very strong political impetus to reach agreement in Montreal around a global biodiversity framework that is much more ambitious, much higher level and much more political in nature to drive action and to drive implementation,” said Mirey Atallah, UNEP’s head of the nature for climate branch, at the media briefing.
Short-term efforts to boost gross domestic product by governments, without paying attention to the fact that nature underpins many economies, will impose greater costs for both present and future generations, the UNEP said in a press release accompanying the report.
Limiting global warming to the threshold of 1.5 degrees is only achievable if action is immediate and if an additional US$1.5 trillion is invested in nature-based solutions between 2022 and 2050, bringing the total investment to US$11 trillion, according to the report.
The World Economic Forum estimates nature-positive policies, or those that add value to nature, could attract over US$10 trillion in new annual business value and create 395 million jobs by 2030.
Protecting forests and oceans helps to mitigate climate change by restoring their carbon dioxide capture and storage capacity.
Only 9 per cent of total investments in nature-based solutions target marine-based ecosystems, which is disproportionate given the role of oceans in climate mitigation and adaptation, according to the report.
The oceans represent over 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface and absorb about a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, acting as one of the world’s largest carbon sinks while also providing 17 per cent of the world’s protein, according to the UNEP.
“By significantly increasing public and private investments in nature-based solutions, it is possible to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation – and at the same time harness many societal and economic benefits,” said Jochen Flasbarth, state secretary in the German federal ministry for economic cooperation and development, in a statement. “We need to act now.”
If we keep on failing to act in the face of the crises that we’re facing, it will simply delay the inevitable
IVO MULDER, U.N. CLIMATE EXPERT