Minister Barbara Creecy, distinguished guests, UN colleagues, partners, and friends,
I am very happy to be in Cape Town to speak to you on the imperative of financing the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Minister Creecy, I want to thank you for being such a strong voice on the issue of biodiversity. The engagement and commitment of South Africa in the biodiversity field makes it a special pleasure to be here, on the same podium as you, together with all distinguished guests, UN colleagues, partners, and friends.
As we’ve just heard from Minister Creecy, South Africa is a country that has uniqueness woven into the very fabric of society. Uniqueness of its biodiversity. Uniqueness of its diversity. Uniqueness of its history which transpires into a strong voice for Africa and for African leadership on priority issues of the continent.
The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) has been in existence for ten years and has done some really useful work. But as with all successful initiatives, we need to ask the initiative to do more, because funding for biodiversity is woefully inadequate and there is so much more to be done.
We are well aware of the great BIOFIN work. BIOFIN has been working on the Biodiversity Expenditure Review and indeed, it is critical to understand what is going on at the national public expenditure level. BIOFIN has been undertaking policy and institutional reviews, which is obviously critically important. We need to know what policies are driving conservation and regeneration and restoration, and what policies are pulling in the other direction. And BIOFIN has looked at financial needs assessments. Again, a critical priority. But the hard reality remains that we have a massive financing gap for biodiversity, which BIOFIN has estimated between US$559 and US$824 billion annually.
And indeed, financing and means of implementation was a key issue in the negotiations for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in Montreal at the UN Biodiversity Convention COP15. Because we cannot succeed in our biodiversity ambition without adequate financing and without the domestic and global policy shifts that the framework calls for. And the truth is that we have been leaning on public finance for biodiversity investments for too long. We need to align our economies and our investments with the new Global Biodiversity Framework so that we can ensure that life on Earth as we know it can continue. So that we can save the very essence of Planet Earth as we know it!
So, how do we achieve what we agreed on in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework?
Acknowledging imperfections in the previous Aichi targets, delegates in Montreal agreed on more meaningful and measurable targets. While there was a significant focus on the 30 by 30 target i.e protecting 30 per cent of terrestrial and marine environment by 2030, we also agreed on a number of other critical targets. On the restoration front, we agreed to have 30 per cent of marine and terrestrial surface under active restoration by 2030 and we further agreed that by 2030, $US30 billion should be available for biodiversity every year. These are great targets. But let’s understand that biodiversity is not only in protected areas and in areas under active restoration. Biodiversity is, in fact, everywhere: in cities, in the farmer’s field, in fishing areas, everywhere – which is why we need to think much more holistically.
And do not forget that we also said that by 2030, we want to see $US200 billion flowing into biodiversity from all sources. We agreed that we would reduce invasive species by 50 per cent. We agreed that we would reduce, at least by half, nutrients flowing into the environment. And we agreed that we would reduce by half the risk from pesticides and hazardous chemicals. All of these are very ambitious targets and we have only some 7 years to achieve them.
So, on this basis, therefore, we need to turbocharge BIOFIN so that in the public expenditure reviews, we take a critical look at biodiversity enhancing and biodiversity destroying policies to ensure that in all steps of the BIOFIN work, the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Framework provide a clear pathway and guardrails. Because we know that protecting biodiversity is not just putting fences around protected areas. Biodiversity is all life on earth. And biodiversity quite literally gives us the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, our very lives, in addition to our identity. And of course, our jobs and our tourism income, as Minister Barbara Creecy has so rightly highlighted.
There’s a lot of work ahead of us, because financing has been woefully inadequate and we see many government policies drive in the opposite direction to biodiversity conservation. Financing needs to step up, and it is so commendable to hear Minister Steffi Lemke of Germany pledge €1.5 billion a year to biodiversity. But that’s one country. We need to see the global north showing this kind of commitment which could drive real biodiversity related results. Financing must be predictable, adequate, and accessible. And domestic policies— industrial, infrastructure-related as well as agriculture — must be cast with a view to being biodiversity and nature-positive so that we can indeed meet the promise to halt and to reverse biodiversity loss.
And let us understand that security – I mean human health security – is part and parcel of the biodiversity story. We know that 75 per cent of all zoonotic diseases emerge from the environment; they are based in and emerge from the wild.
So, we need a system rethink. We need to understand that having gold in reserves in the basement vault at the central bank in a country is not going to help us the day we see ecosystems collapse. We need to talk about the banking system and what it does to underpin, or not, the safety of human life on this planet. Today, biodiversity is financed largely by the public sector. Indeed, 85 per cent of all funding to biodiversity originates from the public sector. So, we need to see much more from the private sector. This is why we are so proud of the UNEP-supported Taskforce for Nature-related Disclosures (TNFD). This work is critical. We want to see – we must see – private sector finance moving in this direction. Here, UNEP’s Finance Initiative is playing a critical role. And we at UNEP will continue to work to ensure that the Finance Initiative and BIOFIN are coordinated and connected.
And so, now is a critical moment to step up. We have the pathway with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. But please recall that this is the third time we have agreed to a ten-year biodiversity plan. Let it not be the third time that we do not meet the targets. So, I must stress that everything, yes everything, we do through national policy, through financial policy and through enabling the levers for change must be looked at through the biodiversity lens.
Minister Creecy, you have highlighted the imperative of linking climate finance and biodiversity finance. I totally agree. There is an iterative relationship between the desertification convention, the biodiversity convention and the climate change convention. They are indivisible. Let us make sure that we hold these together and look at these benefits as they flow from one to the other.
The BIOFIN Initiative has the potential to be that “little engine that can deliver” if we get it right. So, I say to everyone here: do not get stuck in silos, because silos damage us.
And as we look at wealth, and we are going to, think beyond GDP, beyond the ridiculousness that when I build a rocket or cut down a forest, my GDP goes up. That when I fish the oceans empty, my GDP goes up. How does that even begin to make sense? That destructive behaviours add to wealth? That is why the UN Secretary-General is pushing hard for a global rethink about how we measure wealth and why he speaks on the imperative of thinking and measuring our wellbeing “beyond GDP” - measuring wealth and well-being differently. And in this measure, we know that a healthy planet with a vibrant biodiversity is key to sustain human life on earth.
Friends,
We know that biodiversity is important. Biodiversity lives and breathes in our agricultural landscapes, in our cities, and yes, in our small gardens. Our present and future depends on it. The right policies to protect and restore this biodiversity matter greatly – and this is where the BIOFIN Initiative can help.
Thank you.
