Presenting Biodiversity Pulse, Carbon Pulse’s free newsletter on the biodiversity market. It’s a twice-weekly summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. Subscribe here
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TOP STORY
EU, Greece to allocate €4.3 bln for protecting the ocean
The EU and Greece will invest a combined €4.3 billion in protecting the ocean and marine biodiversity, and promoting sustainability, they announced at the 9th Our Ocean Conference in Athens.
MARKET
Demand in biodiversity credit market set to rise, amid huge price range -research
An analysis of recent transactions under five voluntary biodiversity credit frameworks has found that prices vary massively, ranging from $7 to $41,000 per unit for a 100-year conservation period, with average rates expected to surge in the coming years.
Biodiversity credit market must recognise many projects will not work -researcher
Buyers of biodiversity credits should purchase multiple units at once to overcome the issue of some single initiatives not offering actual nature uplift, a researcher has said.
Indian states approve 500 land areas for involvement in controversial green credit scheme
Ten Indian states have approved over 500 plots of degraded forest lands for inclusion in the government’s Green Credit Programme despite experts and environmentalists objecting the scheme rules could have devastating impact on ecosystems.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Nature funding for Indigenous Peoples and local communities increases 36%
Donor funding for tenure and forest guardianship by Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities increased by a third over the last eight years, though few resources directly reached on-the-ground organisations, a report has found.
German banks’ interest in nature is growing but still not sufficient, PwC analysis says
Financial institutions in Germany are increasingly taking nature into account in their strategic plans, though commitments are still in the very early stages, analysis has shown.
TOOLS & GUIDANCE
Conservation tech firm, Bloomberg Ocean Initiative launch tool to monitor marine biodiversity protection
Non-profit tech company and the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative have launched an open-source tool to track progress in sea conservation across the world, and presented it during the ongoing ocean conference in Athens, Greece.
TNFD, GRI announce closer nature and biodiversity reporting collaboration
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have announced they are tightening their collaboration to better support corporate nature and biodiversity reporting.
New tool helps UK building developers address biodiversity impacts
Building developers in England will be able to more easily address the biodiversity impacts of their projects and comply with the biodiversity net gain (BNG) mandate thanks to the launch today of a new BNG software, which helps companies understand the biodiversity impact of different building designs.
Open source tools key to boost corporate reporting, EU biodiversity boss says
Developing free and open-source monitoring tools is crucial as corporates’ interest in disclosing their biodiversity footprint is increasing, the director for biodiversity at the European Commission said Thursday.
POLICY
Denmark pledges nearly $300 mln to plant forests, enhance water ecosystem
The Danish government has allocated DKK2 billion ($285 million) to initiatives aimed at strengthening biodiversity across the country, including planting forests and enhancing water ecosystems.
Philippines, Germany roll out €37-mln climate and biodiversity programme
Germany’s international development agency GIZ and the Philippines Climate Change Commission on Tuesday announced the soft launch of a programme aimed at protecting, conserving, and rehabilitating biodiversity and natural carbon sinks in the Southeast Asian nation.
Dominican Republic formally commits to protecting 30% of waters
The Dominican Republic has formally committed to protecting at least 30% of its waters, fulfilling part of its commitment under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
Australia to introduce bill to establish EPA, but defers crucial environmental law reforms
The Australian government will introduce legislation to establish national environmental protection and information bodies, but has split reforms that would strengthen laws underpinning them into a separate tranche.
SCIENCE & TECH
Including OECMs in Australia’s biodiversity targets could lead to “perverse outcomes”, study says
Australia’s plan to rely on Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) to meet its biodiversity protection targets could have troubling implications, a paper has said, as the government mulls making these areas eligible for biodiversity crediting.
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CONFERENCE
The HackSummit, Europe’s largest gathering of ClimateTech builders and investors is coming to Lausanne, Switzerland on June 13-14. And you’re invited. You’ll be in great company with 1,500 of the brightest minds in climate and biodiversity, including Marty Odlin of Running Tide, Kevin Webb of Superorganism, Zoe Balmforth of Pivotal, Leo Caprez of BrainForest and Sonja Stuchtey of The Landbanking Group. And it’ll probably be the most fun you’ll have at a ClimateTech Summit this year. Ready to join? Use the code CARBONPULSE20 to save 20% on your pass.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Finding cash – Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA), backed by Singapore’s Temasek Trust, is launching a new initiative aimed at boosting philanthropic spending on nature and biodiversity, Straits Times reports. The new Communities initiative includes two nature-themed “clusters” of givers. The Blue Oceans community focuses on the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and marine resources in Asia, while the Sustainable Land Use community will prioritise sustainable agriculture, land conservation, and biodiversity preservation. A third community will focus on holistic and inclusive education. For a start, more than S$40 mln ($30 mln) in funding has been committed across the three communities by the PAA and “community pioneers”.
Underwear – Fashion brand Yamamay and beauty giant Shiseido have backed Project M.A.R.E. (Marine Adventure for Research and Education), an initiative for the preservation of the Mediterranean Sea. The underwear brand said it aims to raise awareness among younger generations about ocean conservation. Shiseido claimed that this new commitment reflects its broader environmental initiative, the Shiseido Blue Project.
Sustainable wines – The Washington state sustainability certification for wine grapes – Sustainable WA – and eco-label Salmon-Safe have teamed up to enhance water quality protection, wildlife habitat conservation, and climate resiliency, the Washington wine industry announced on Thursday. As part of the initiative, vineyards will have the chance to obtain dual certification for both Sustainable WA and Salmon-Safe by passing a third-party audit. Wineries can feature the Sustainable WA logo on their bottles if the wines are made of 75% certified Sustainable WA wine grapes and the Salmon-Safe logo if the wines include 95% Salmon-Safe certified wine grapes.
POLICY
Carbon with benefits – Mandatory co-benefits such as the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems are to be included under provisions for carbon farming under the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF), as presented during a briefing at the European Commission Tuesday. (Carbon Pulse)
More money – Innovate UK has announced £1.3 mln in funding for the development of complete end-to-end marine monitoring systems and their verification and validation. The grant will be allocated among seven projects focused on game-changing technological innovations, in a bid to bolster capabilities to monitor biodiversity in the UK seas.
Regional dialogue – The secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has announced a regional dialogue on National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) for Latin America, which will be held in Lima, Peru, over June 25-28. The initiative aims to facilitate the sharing of experiences and mutual learning related to the updating and revision of NBSAPs, the CBD secretariat said in a statement, inviting countries to nominate up to two representatives to attend the meeting.
Renewed – Canada and France have renewed their partnership on climate and environment, committing to intensifying cooperation to tackle the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. The agreement includes a pledge to increase financing for climate and biodiversity policies, and promote the results of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework. Canada and France also emphasised that multilateral development banks and financial institutions should be mobilised to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) projects.
Six more – Six indicators have been added to the EU Biodiversity Strategy dashboard to monitor the bloc’s progress towards the targets set for 2030, the Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD) announced Monday. With this update, the dashboard now displays progress towards eight out of 16 targets, measured by a total of 16 indicators.
SCIENCE & TECH
Fourth global mass stress episode underway – The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch, the most important coral reef monitoring body in the world, has announced that the Earth is currently experiencing the fourth global coral bleaching event, the second in the last 10 years. “As the world’s oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent and severe”, NOAA stated.
A record year – Dam Removal Europe has unveiled in a new report that 487 dams were removed in 15 European countries in 2023, a 50% increase on last year’s record number. The initiative resulted in the restoration of over 4,300 km of rivers, which improved biodiversity, ecosystems, and climate resilience. France, Spain, Sweden, and Denmark have been at the forefront of removing barriers.
Seeds of recovery – The restricted movement of large birds can reduce the potential biomass of future forests by 38%, according to a study led by researchers at ETH Zurich and published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The paper said that animals disperse most tree species in tropical forests, but their contribution to forest and carbon recovery is not yet quantified. In landscapes with less than 40% forest cover, large birds have limited movements, but small birds continue to disperse seeds, the paper found. “Maintaining forest cover at more than 40% is essential to optimising animals’ contribution to restoration success,” researchers said.
Cosmic cooking – An Earth observation data tool has been launched by San Francisco-based company Planet Labs. Planet Insights Platform combines Earth data with cloud-based analytics to try to enable users to efficiently analyse data at scale. “We’ve unified our core offerings into a powerful set of … tools that provide access to multiple data sets and powerful analytics,” in a move that “breaks down conventional barriers”, the company said.
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