With nature-related announcements and outcomes firmly in the spotlight at COP28, stakeholders have taken stock of the outcome from the Dubai conference and what it may mean for the global biodiversity crisis.
Behind the headlines of fossil fuel transitioning and renewables expansion, countries and companies also committed to a swathe of nature-related actions, including in the flagship outcome of the event, the first Global Stocktake (GST) of the Paris Agreement.
As well as this, a collective contribution of over $186 million to forests, mangroves, and the ocean, underlined the importance of biodiversity at the UN climate summit.
Milestone agreements like a joint nature statement, signed by 18 countries, and the explicit inclusion of the sector in the GST, have led to some saying nature has now been recognised as an essential component in the fight against climate change.
Carbon Pulse asked market players what their key takeaways for nature were from the conference across policy, funding, and data.
THE GLOBAL STOCKTAKE
Nature emerged in core policy agreements at COP28 like the Global Stocktake and the Global Goal on Adaption.
Jennicca Gordon, associate with the Natural Climate Solutions Alliance in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, flagged how the interdependence of biodiversity and climate was recognised for the “first time” in the Global Stocktake.
Several paragraphs in the agreement, sealed Wednesday, highlighted the role of “protecting, conserving, and restoring nature and ecosystems”, in line with the final agreement from the UN COP15 biodiversity summit last year, Gordon said.
The text also mentions the need to “enhance efforts towards preserving and restoring oceans and coastal ecosystems”.
The GST is a process that takes place every five years where countries assess progress towards meeting goals of the Paris Agreement.
Dorothy Maseke, head of the secretariat of the African Natural Capital Alliance, said the GST result suggested nature had taken “centre stage” at COP28, with the recognition that the 1.5C target cannot be achieved without protecting nature.
Andrew Deutz, global policy lead at The Nature Conservancy, further pointed out how the wording of the new document highlighted efforts towards “halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030”.
Indeed, the deforestation line “sets the stage” for stronger commitments at the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the climate targets under Paris, and at COP30 in Brazil, which will be held in the Amazon, according to Edie Juno, forestry specialist at the National Wildlife Federation.
The updated Global Goal on Adaption, which sets expectations for how companies can meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, also directly mentions nature, said Martin Stuchtey, co-CEO of conservationist platform The Landbanking Group.
The goal mentions accelerating the use of ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solutions, reflecting growing recognition that climate goals demand nature-positivity, Stuchtey told Carbon Pulse.
Aside from the core agreements, a plethora of other packages at COP28 signed by groups of countries further strengthened the climate-nature link.
These included:
- The Ministerial Alliance for Nature Finance launched by Nigeria, Liberia, Samoa, and Sierra Leone
- A statement supporting the need to use more sustainable timber in construction by 2030, endorsed by 17 countries including Canada, UK, and the US
- The Freshwater Challenge initiative to protect water resources, joined by more than 30 countries
- Canada planning to introduce legislation to hold the government accountable for its commitments on nature
- 30 countries joining the Mangrove Alliance for Climate
LANDMARK STATEMENT
Among the most important announcements was a Joint Statement On Climate, Nature And People, signed by 18 countries including China, the US, Germany, the UAE, and Brazil.
The five-point statement aims to foster stronger cooperation between national climate and biodiversity plans, while scaling investment in the area, though it lacked any concrete time-bound commitments.
Gordon said the “landmark” statement “not only establishes an integrated approach to climate and nature action, but, more importantly, is designed to ensure continuity across successive COPs”, as it specifically mentions biodiversity COP16 next year, and climate COP30 in 2025.
Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the statement put the issue of implementing the COP15 final agreement under the spotlight.
“There is an increasing realisation in the global environmental community of the role of nature in contributing to climate action,” Li told Carbon Pulse.
“I would expect this to continue to be the case in the next few years, in particular in light of COP30 being held in the biodiversity-rich Amazon region in Brazil.”
COP16 can take the mention of ocean-based action in the GST further by highlighting specific marine targets in its final agreement, African Natural Capital Alliance’s Maseke said.
COLOMBIA LEADERSHIP
The joint nature statement surfaced on Nature Day, which was a “pivotal moment for biodiversity”, Gordon said. The next day, on Dec. 12, Colombia announced it had applied to host COP16.
Eva Zabey, CEO of Business for Nature, said the news was warmly welcomed in Dubai.
Colombian environment minister Susana Muhamad’s leadership in Dubai was “outstanding, collaborating with business, finance and civil society to stand up for nature as well as the phaseout of fossil fuels”, Zabey said.
COP16 is likely to leverage some of the nature-related progress achieved in Dubai, in updating their national strategies, according to Sylvain Vanston, executive director at MSCI ESG Research.
The inclusion of nature in the GST may be a sign that, with an increasingly shared agenda, the climate and biodiversity COPs should join forces, Vanston said.
“It may make greater sense, and hopefully generate greater impact, to initiate a political convergence between the two COP series going forward. This could be an interesting signal coming out of COP30 in Rio,” he told Carbon Pulse.
Meanwhile, Li said he hoped Colombia’s announcement would give COP16 convenors, the Convention on Biological Diversity, a boost.
“This will also help ensure that the visions outlined at COP15 in Montreal can be quickly followed up,” he said.
FUNDING REALITY
Despite a slew of pledges for the future, recent finance that damaged nature outweighed positive contributions by more than 30 to one, according to UN Environment Programme’s annual State of Finance for Nature report released at COP28.
The report brought to light a “stark reality”, Gordon said. “A concerning aspect highlighted by UNEP was that investments in harmful activities from both public and private sectors each year amounted to nearly $7 trillion.”
In comparison, annual spending on nature-based solutions reached $200 billion in 2022, the report found.
“This stark contrast in financial allocations underscored the urgency in addressing the financing gap for projects dedicated to protecting, restoring, and managing nature that positively impact climate and communities,” Gordon said.
The Natural Climate Solutions Alliance is trying to convey voices from across society on the need for demand for high-quality natural climate solutions, she said.
Despite the grim outlook, some initiatives targeted raising significant financial capital at COP.
The world’s major multilateral development banks launched a first common set of principles to track nature-positive finance, as part of a move to scale up activities that protect nature.
The Nature Conservancy’s Deutz said the joint declaration aims to boost nature- and climate-linked sovereign debt issues to help the Global South finance its environmental goals.
“Key to the declaration was the establishment of a task force to work on … credit enhancement mechanisms for projects like nature bonds,” Deutz said.
Furthermore, more than $7.1 bln was mobilised for climate-positive action in the food sector, according to the COP28 website.
TECH GROWTH
The positive trajectories of nature-related data and disclosure initiatives were also evident in Dubai, Landbanking’s Stuchtey said.
“We are seeing massive growth and maturing in nature and finance technology companies, many of them present at COP28,” he said.
Rachel Delacour, CEO of carbon management platform Sweep, said a combination of data-driven conservation initiatives, with biodiversity metric commitments, at the conference “reflect a widespread realisation that we need data-driven insights to protect our natural environment”.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) released a heap of documents at COP28, including a series of accessible guides for executives at companies and financial institutions to use in workshops called ‘TNFD in a Box’, to help them engage with its final recommendations.
The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) joined the fray by announcing it was developing targets for nature focused on cities, following its release of the first science-based targets for nature in May. Initial guidance will launch in 2025 covering the impact of cities on natural systems.
More than 150 businesses and financial institutions have announced plans to set climate and nature targets using frameworks by the Science-Based Target Network and Science-Based Target initiative.
Stuchtey said the commitments were a sign that TNFD is “clearly changing the way nature and biodiversity is discussed and incorporated”.
“These commitments involve increasing investments in nature-based solutions and adhering to the TNFD for assessing and disclosing their environmental impact and risks.”
Although actions to tackle the biodiversity crisis still have some way to go, many market actors were encouraged by nature taking a much more prominent place than at previous climate summits.
According to Simon Zadek, executive director at non-profit NatureFinance, biodiversity was more central to the climate agenda than ever before “as something to protect and restore, as a means of addressing climate challenges, and as a basis for a new global nature or bioeconomy”.
By Thomas Cox and Stian Reklev – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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