A report published by the French government, in collaboration with CDC Biodiversite, underlined that greater finance from across the spectrum of stakeholders would be needed to protect nature, while also assessing the various tools available to scale funding.
The publication, resulting from a partnership between green organisation, CDC Biodiversite, and the French Office for Biodiversity, aims to facilitate the identification levers available to project owners in France, thus offering prospects for multiplying the number of nature conservation and restoration projects in the country.
Different financing options for nature-based solutions (NBS) are starting to be well identified, both in France and internationally, says the paper, but there remains the challenge of funding with a huge gap between current levels and what is needed for both climate and nature goals.
“This study therefore aims to promote the commitment of a whole panel of actors by exploring several avenues for financing or participating in the financing of projects implemented on French territory,” it stated, originally in French.
Specific to biodiversity projects, there is the problem of conflicting incentives, subject to numerous market failures that do not favor the full mobilisation of capital or attention from the various stakeholders, the report argued.
This situation can be illustrated by the opposition between investors wishing to economically optimise these solutions, and the aims of project owners, which are based on a long-term territorial approach.
One solution proposed would be to redistribute environmentally harmful subsidies towards protective practices or sectors.
The report also urged those undertaking innovative forms of financing, such as the nascent biodiversity crediting market, to share experiences and best practice, in order to help others enter the space.
“To really change scale, it is necessary to no longer approach this financing from a philanthropic perspective, but rather to include ecosystem services as full components of business models, which must be sustained,” the report stated.
France and the UK are working closely on a future biodiversity crediting scheme, and are to launch a public consultation process on the framework next week.
In addition, innovative options to the treatment of debt was another avenue that could be taken, expected to emerge as a big topic at this year’s UN climate summit in Dubai, having been a focus of high-level talks leading up to the event in 2023.
The paper underlined that public finance alone is no longer enough to ensure the required protection for nature from both a climate and biodiversity perspective.
By Roy Manuell – roy@carbon-pulse.com
