The International Development Finance Club (IDFC) has set a goal to mobilise more than $100 billion in biodiversity finance by 2027, becoming the first financial organisation to set a time-bound funding target.

The group, which consists of 27 national and regional development banks from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central and South America, included the new target in its updated position paper on biodiversity ahead of the biodiversity COP15, which begins in Montreal next week, it announced on Wednesday.

“Tackling biodiversity loss by aligning financial flows with global biodiversity targets will be an important part of the solution in terms of climate change, poverty reduction and equitable development, particularly in developing countries,” the group said in a statement.

“By integrating nature-related financial risks, impacts and dependencies into investment decisions, by scaling up nature positive investments such as nature-based solutions, restoration of degraded ecosystems, sustainable agriculture, fisheries and infrastructure, and finally by disclosing nature-related financial risks and opportunities, the financial sector will make the difference.”

The target of $20 bln in finance on average over the next five years is only marginally up from the $18 bln in biodiversity investments reported by IDFC in 2021.

However, 2021 saw a sharp 31% uptick in funding compared to the previous year.

The increasing contribution is designed to help close the global biodiversity finance gap, estimated at around $600-825 bln per year.

Through the position paper, IDFC members committed to developing biodiversity strategy or action plans that will include risk management, impact mitigation, and direct conservation and mainstreaming finance.

They also pledged to increasing their mobilisation of finance for nature-positive projects and policies, and to allocate a substantive part of their climate finance to projects that also have positive impacts on nature and biodiversity.

IDFC also backed initiatives to measure, report, and disclose risks, impact, dependencies and opportunities related to nature, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

IDFC is the world’s largest provider of public development and climate finance, and members include the French Development Agency, Germany’s KfW, Italy’s CDP, Africa Finance Corporation, China Development Bank, and the Brazilian Development Bank BNDES.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com