Australia on Sunday announced it will host a global summit next year to drive private-sector investment in nature conservation and restoration projects, just weeks before the next biodiversity COP.
Sydney will be the host for what the Australian government called the world’s first global nature positive summit.
“The summit will bring together delegates from around the world including ministers, environment groups, First Nations peoples, business, scientists, and community leaders, to consider how to supercharge investment in projects that repair nature,” said a statement from the federal and the New South Wales state governments.
Key focus at the event will be on transparency and reporting, growing business demand for investment in nature, and partnership and capacity development to increase landholder participation.
“Delegates will also consider how to support developing nations, boost First Nations partnership in nature repair, and improve policies to increase investment in nature,” the announcement said.
Australia’s Labor party government has for the past year worked to position the country at the heart of accelerated action to combat the global nature and biodiversity crisis, as what Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has labelled the “Green Wall Street”.
Domestically it is pushing a national voluntary biodiversity credit market, dubbed the nature repair market, though passage of that in parliament has become delayed amid lawmaker scrutiny as the government is struggling to secure the required support among the other parties.
However, experts say a voluntary biodiversity market is coming to Australia whether the government scheme passes or not.
“Turning the tide like this, from nature destruction to nature repair, will require a mighty global effort. We need government leading way, but we also need the private sector, environmentalists, and First Nations groups all pulling in the same direction,” Plibersek said Sunday.
“That’s why we’re convening the Global Nature Positive Summit here in Sydney. We’re bringing the best environmental and financial minds to Australia, to share our expertise, and discuss how we work together to protect this planet for our kids and grandkids.”
The Sydney summit will take place in early Oct. 2024, just weeks before delegates from nearly 200 countries will meet at the UN Convention for Biological Diversity’s COP16 to discuss the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework that was agreed in Montreal last December.
The UN is currently looking for a willing host for that event after Turkey earlier this month had to withdraw, citing force majeure after the devastating earthquakes it suffered in February.
How to meet the target of ensuring nature investments of $200 billion per year by 2030 will be a central theme at the COP, and especially policies that can increase contributions from the private sector, for example through market mechanisms.
In June, the governments of France and the UK launched an initiative that will culminate with the presentation at COP16 of a final framework for a global biodiversity credit market, developed by a broad group of government representatives, market participants, Indigenous peoples and local communities, and others.
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