Report: “State Of Finance For Nature: Tripling investments in nature-based solutions by 2030”

At the end of May, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Economic Forum (WEF) and Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) issued the “State Of Finance For Nature: Tripling investments in nature-based solutions by 2030” report, which is set to become the principal vehicle for presenting the results of a global analysis to track investment flows into nature-based solutions. The report also identifies future investments needed to meet the biodiversity, climate and land restoration targets of the Paris Agreement (under the UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The report, to which Marta Simonetti of Globalfields also contributed as writer and researcher with Vivid Economics, underscores the importance of nature to reach the objectives of the Conventions. In this context, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can offer important and integrated solutions that ‘protect, sustainably manage and restore natural and modified ecosystems in ways that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, to provide both human well-being and biodiversity benefits’. Currently, investments in Nature-based Solutions only amount to USD 133 billion, or about 0.10 percent of global GDP, most of which comes from public sources. The report estimates that if the world is to meet the climate change, biodiversity, and land degradation targets, it needs to close a USD 4.1 trillion financing gap in nature by 2050. To close this gap, economic growth needs to focus on nature. Overall, NbS can provide up to 37 per cent of global cost-effective solutions to reduce the emission gap of 32 Gigatons to meet the targets under the Paris Agreement.

Read the full report: State of Finance for Nature (2021).

Photo credit: Luca Bravo.