It is with great pleasure that I welcome the First Lady of Kenya, Mama Rachel Ruto, as our Guest of Honour at this Special Session of the UN Science-Policy-Business Forum, taking place on the side lines of the sixth UN Environment Assembly, or UNEA-6.
The world has gathered here in Nairobi to seek inclusive multilateral solutions to the triple planetary crisis: the crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss and the crisis of pollution and waste. We are doing so because a stable climate, healthy nature and pollution-free planet are the bedrock of our societies and economies.
This session is focused on nature-based solutions and how to finance them. This is work of utmost importance. The First Lady, and the government of Kenya, understands this. This morning, I was privileged to accompany Mama Ruto to Karura Forest as she inaugurated her new initiative to grow and nurture 500 million trees by 2032. This is a huge contribution to achieving Kenya’s national objective of 30 per cent tree cover by 2030. And it is a big contribution to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which is supporting global commitments to restore one billion hectares of ecosystems worldwide.
Of course, reforestation, afforestation and land restoration are key nature-based solutions. They slow and build resilience to climate change. Bring back vital biodiversity. Increase food security. Provide jobs and better health. And when done in an urban setting, as with Karura Forest, they provide a vital connection to nature in an increasingly urbanizing world and help cool the extreme temperatures we’re already sweating under.
Unfortunately, Nature-based Solutions are underfunded. They receive only US$200 billion globally per year, less than a third of what is needed per year by 2030 to meet climate, biodiversity and land degradation goals. They are not just underfunded, however. They are being undone by US$7 trillion in nature-negative finance that flows annually from harmful subsides and investments.
Considering these numbers, it’s clear that realigning nature-negative finance flows is the best way to halt and reverse nature loss. To do that we need to change the incentives – policy. We need to provide the data on long term economic losses – science. We need to shift business practices and the very understanding of bankability – business.
Friends,
When looking at investment opportunities, particularly in Africa, protected area management and avoiding deforestation are particularly cost effective. Globally, protection-related Nature-based Solutions represent roughly 80 per cent of additional land area needed by 2030 but require only 20 per cent of additional finance.
These protected areas need to be managed and maintained. Many countries have a restrained fiscal space, which is why Kenya championed a review of financial instruments at the Africa Climate Summit. There are many ways to increase investment but let me zoom in on Debt for Climate and Nature Swaps. These swaps can provide a solution to the interconnected challenges of debt, climate and nature loss – especially in developing countries affected by sovereign debt crises and the hangover of Covid-19. They can open-up fiscal space, leverage additional finance and develop regional approaches for shared ecosystems. Existing examples include Ecuador’s debt for nature swap, which saves US$1.1 billion in repayments and provides US$450 million for conservation, and Gabon’s US$500 million marine conservation deal.
UNEP is exploring Debt for Climate and Nature Swaps in the Latin America and Caribbean region. A key proposal of our technical approach was the development of a regional framework to promote sustainability and manage debt, which would strengthen collaboration, solidarity and solvability.
There is also a proposal for a Green Climate Fund project in the Kingdom of Eswatini, which includes laying the foundation for Eswatini’s first Debt- for-Climate and Nature swap mechanism. Connecting these initiatives with innovating eco-preneurs can help provide the proof of concept that nature is not to be extracted for free, it is to be nurtured and valued.
Friends,
The natural world has, over billions of years, evolved into an incredibly complex system that provides not just the resources we depend upon, but services that no amount of technology can replace. When we look to a sustainable future and solutions to the triple planetary crisis, we must therefore first look to nature. Right now, humanity is financing its own failure. We must, instead, finance a better future by backing nature. I look forward to hearing what solutions you can identify at this forum to make this happen.
