On July 7th, the Post-2020 Pavilion hosted a public virtual event on “Transforming the Financial System to Eliminate Nature Loss”.
The objective of this session was to identify the new tools on nature disclosure that could help to achieve a systemic change in finance for nature under the Post-2020 Framework. Financial institutions have a significant role to play in reversing the loss of nature. However, the focus today is mainly on climate change and the transition to more sustainable use of nature by businesses is thus an urgent priority. It is particularly important since the Zero Draft of the Post-2020 GBF mentions the private sector as a key actor in elevating higher ambition.
“We don’t need to quantify the importance of nature to actually measure how vital it is.” Simon Zadek, Finance for Biodiversity.
This session explored the new standardised metrics and increased transparency on nature impacts, as well as the dependencies, risks and opportunities that must be understood in order to enable finance to flow towards the most sustainable activities.
- Danijela Piljic, Strategic Advisor, Economist at Dutch Central Bank
- Simon Connell, Head of Sustainability, Standard . Chartered Bank & Chair, UK Banking and Environment Initiative
- Mariuz Calvet, Director of Grupo Financiero Banorte, Mexico
- Hon. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Minister of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica, and GEF Executive Secretary-designate . Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary, CBD Secretariat
- Elisabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary – CBD Secretariat
- Simon Zadek, Chair – Finance for Biodiversity
“We do need to change direction of money, or we will keep financing our own extinction!” Andrew Mitchell, Co-Founder – Natural Capital Finance Alliance.
Moderator:
- Andrew Mitchell, Co-Founder – Natural Capital Finance Alliance
The Post-2020 Pavilion will be convened during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France from 3-11 September 2021. The Post-2020 Pavilion is a collaborative effort by an international partnership of many of the world’s largest environment and development NGOs, foundations, as well as several UN organisations and representatives of youth, Indigenous Peoples, Cities and Subnational governments and the business sector. The partners are united in their collective drive for transformative change to ensure that the GBF is sufficiently ambitious, scientifically grounded and mission-aligned.
The impacts of COVID-19 was also examined in terms of the correlations between nature loss and global pandemics and the transformative change needed to Healthy Planet and Healthy People.