UNEP FI Panel: Nature, biodiversity, and blue economy: Unlocking the potential of nature-based solutions to close the finance gap by 2050

Governments, financial institutions need to overcome the investment gap by placing nature at the heart of economic decision-making in the future. Capital flows to nature-based solutions need to be accelerated by making nature central to public and private sector decision-making related to societal challenges, including tackling the climate and biodiversity crises. Structural transformations are needed to finance gap between now and 2050, by building back more sustainably, by repurposing harmful agricultural and fossil fuel subsidies and by creating economic and regulatory incentives.

However, nature currently only accounts for 2.5% of projected economic stimulus spending. Private capital will also have to be scaled up dramatically to close the investment gap. Developing and scaling up revenue flows from ecosystem services and using blended finance models as a means to crowd in private capital are among the suite of solutions needed to make this happen, which also requires risk-sharing from private sector entities.

• Natural capital, ESG and private markets- how both can work in tandem to assess biodiversity loss?
• The impact management platform- managing sustainability impacts which can be integrated with financial performance-how to successfully assess impacts
• Geographical data- problems associated with poor quality data and regional climate risk
• Investors need to direct private capital towards ESG and better-quality data rather than reducing sovereign debt