The seventh meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI-7) concluded this week in Nairobi, marking an important step on the road to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP17 in Yerevan.
The Finance for Biodiversity Foundation (FfB) was represented by Public Policy Advocacy Working Group Co-Chair Sonya Likhtman, who followed negotiations on the global review of collective progress and mainstreaming, engaged with Parties and other stakeholders, and delivered a statement during the SBI-7 plenary.
For FfB, a key focus going into SBI-7 was the role of the financial system in accelerating implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Mobilising more finance for biodiversity must go hand in hand with changes to the financial and economic systems that shape impacts on biodiversity.
We called for the decision documents that will be agreed at COP17 to reflect this need, including through greater involvement of ministries of finance, central banks, and financial regulators, as well as the development of sectoral transition pathways that can help translate global biodiversity goals into action across the real economy.
There were some encouraging signs. The draft texts discussed in Nairobi include FfB’s identified priorities for implementing the GBF, such as increased action to address the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss, financial and economic system transformation, mapping and reform of incentives that are harmful to biodiversity, and mainstreaming of biodiversity considerations across economic sectors. An enabling policy environment remains essential to support business and private finance to effectively manage nature-related risks and opportunities, and to meaningfully contribute to halting and reversing nature loss.
Nairobi helped move the discussions forward, but many important issues remain unresolved. With all but one of the GBF targets currently off track, especially the targets related to business and finance, the focus now shifts to COP17 in Yerevan and what is needed to accelerate implementation of the GBF.