Dec 08, 2022
"Nature needs finance. CIF is providing it. Science is backing it," said Dr. Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research & Chief Scientist at Conservation International during an event on the Climate Investment Funds’ (CIF) Nature, People and Climate program at COP27 in Egypt, as part of two action-packed weeks of exciting announcements, discussions and bilateral meetings.
After Sharm-El Sheik, the world looks to Montreal, where the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, is set to address the urgency of biodiversity loss and align on a new global framework. For the first time, CIF will be present and convene an event at this important global conference, with Mafalda Duarte, CIF’s CEO, sharing her vision on connecting the dots between climate finance and biodiversity, particularly through the Nature, People and Climate (NPC) Program. She will be joining the CIF’s Nurturing Nature: Financing Nature-based Solutions for Climate, Biodiversity and Communities event on December 15, Women and Youth Day, at the Canadian Pavilion. The event will feature CIF Dedicated Grant Mechanism Indigenous Youth Fellow Rocío Aguilar Méndez; Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award Recipient & UNEP Champion of the Earth Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet; Conservation International’s and Potsdam Institute’s Johan Rockstrom and Climate and Nature Solutions’ Catherine McKenna, amongst others. Representatives of the Dutch, German, Spanish and Swedish governments will also participate.
CIF’s NPC Program deploys concessional funding to low- and middle-income countries to pilot and scale nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. NPC will address issues on land use, climate-change mitigation and adaptation, and livelihoods, with a specific focus on rural communities and Indigenous peoples. By placing nature at the center of climate action, the first group of NPC partner countries, announced at COP27 in collaboration with Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK, wants to contribute to preserving biodiversity and nurture communities. For example, Kenya intends to safeguard vital water towers and offer a resilient future to its Indigenous and Tribal communities. Africa’s Zambezi River basin countries want to maintain valuable ecosystems that also support climate, food security and economic development for local communities. Fiji and the Dominican Republic plan to cultivate and preserve mangroves that have been disappearing in coastal areas, protecting precious ecosystems on land and in water.
“The world is in great need of nature-based solutions that place Indigenous peoples and local communities at their center, a strategy I have been pursuing since the 1980s,” said primatologist, conservationist, and UN Messenger of Peace Dr Jane Goodall, when acknowledging the Climate Investment Funds. CIF “recognizes the interdependency between land use, climate change, and people, and are championing this cause using their proven model through a new investment program, Nature, People and Climate, which has my support."
And the world cannot wait. According to the United Nations, annual nature investments from G20 nations alone need to increase by an additional USD165 billion per year—an increase of 140% from existing levels – to realize biodiversity, land restoration and climate targets by 2050. This includes the widely accepted goal of protecting 30 percent of the world’s terrestrial and marine habitats by 2030. Developing nations are ready to play their part and engage in nature-based programs, as demonstrated by the demand seen after NPC was announced this summer, when one-third of the developing world, or 55 countries, formally applied for funding.
