UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit is working with member states, as well as corporate and finance leaders, to unlock public and private finance for sustainable agriculture, forestry and landscape restoration. The Unit aims to do so by demonstrating ‘proof-of-concept’; working towards a new asset class for ‘net zero, nature positive’ agriculture and forestry; and making sustainable deforestation-free and nature positive land use ultimately becoming the new norm rather than the exception.
The facilities, funds and coalitions that UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit is supporting are:
- The Restoration Seed Capital Facility provides three distinct types of support to private fund managers and investment advisors: a) Fund development: costs related to setting up new forest landscape restoration-themed funds; b) Pipeline development: costs related to building a pipeline of bankable projects; and c) Project development: costs related to bringing projects to a financial close. In each of these cases at least 50% of the costs need to be covered by the private sector partner.
- The Agri3 Fund provides guarantees, soft loans, and grants to commercial banks and other financial institutions, acting as a catalyst and ‘de-risking’ vehicle to facilitate the switch towards more sustainable forms of food and commodity production. In addition to the Agri3 Fund, a separate Technical Assistance facility has been put in place to ensure the scaling-up of innovative sustainable agricultural practices to farmers.
- The Tropical Landscapes Finance Facility redirects long-term investment capital towards commercially viable and sustainability-focused projects and companies in Indonesia. The TLFF was launched by the Minister for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia in October in 2016 and has set a target of unlocking USD 1 billion in capital to finance sustainable landscape management and rural renewable energy production.
- The &Green Fund provides credits and guarantees to finance commodity supply chain projects in jurisdictions that have progressive forest and/or peatland protection strategies and policies.
- The Good Growth Partnership advances technical capabilities to finance sustainable commodity supply chains.
- The Restoration Initiative develops bankable projects to contribute to the restoration and maintenance of critical landscapes which provide global environmental benefits and more resilient economic development. It provides technical assistance for nature-based solutions in 10 countries including China, Pakistan, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Principe.
- The Restoration Factory is a mentoring programme helping restoration entrepreneurs to reach bankability quicker by increasing their access to finance from investors.
- The Good Food Finance Network brings together financial institutions across the public, private and multilateral sectors, from all regions of the world, to raise ambition and drive action on food systems transformation.
- The Innovative Finance for the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco aims to advance conversion-free cattle and soy production in South America which will protect the land as the industry expands.
