Elisa Vacherand on what WWF is prioritising as we look towards COP30

What are the biggest barriers to scaling nature-positive investments, and how can they be overcome? 

Sustaining healthy ecosystems globally requires $700 billion annually. Securing this level of funding will be challenging but achievable: it is less than 1% of total global GDP, and much less than the $7 trillion a year - including $5 trillion in private investment - that pour into activities such as fossil fuels and industrial agriculture which exacerbate the nature and climate crises.  

Critically, turning the public billions now available for nature into the trillions of dollars we need requires unlocking private sector investment in nature by creating bankable opportunities. This means scaling innovative financial instruments that crowd in private investment in nature, including outcome bonds, sovereign debt conversions such as debt-for-nature swaps, biodiversity bonds and equities, biodiversity credits, blended finance, and private venture capital. 

Continuing to refine what nature-positive investment means by setting standards and agreeing metrics such as those offered by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and developing regulatory incentives for investment in nature such as those being developed by the Transition Plan Taskforce in the UK, are also vital. 

The good news is that valuing and investing in nature is becoming the new norm for some in the private sector. Between 2020 and 2024, private finance for nature globally surged elevenfold from $9.4 billion to over $102 billion. And notwithstanding current economic and political challenges, if the trend were to continue, investment could grow to $1.45 trillion by 2030, which would be a gamechanger for global biodiversity and planetary health. 

What policy changes are needed to unlock greater private-sector investment in biodiversity and ecosystem services? 

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by 196 countries in 2022 to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, including by aligning financial flows, offers financial institutions a lodestar for nature-positive action equivalent to the Paris Agreement on climate change. 

Delivering on this ambition requires that governments provide the private sector with clarity about how it can contribute to realising national biodiversity and climate action plans. Annual business opportunities in transitioning to a nature-positive economy are worth over $10 trillion by 2030 - but realising this potential, requires $2.7 trillion in annual investment.  

Unlocking private sector investment in nature requires developing and improving ESG regulations such as taxonomies or the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), deploy standards like the TNFD, and creating market mechanisms for biodiversity credits such as the recently launched IAPB Framework for high integrity biodiversity credit markets.  

WWF is also calling for the development of nature-positive transition pathways for key sectors of the economy. These will clarify how different sectors can contribute to national biodiversity targets and offer investors insight on where to invest for a more resilient future. Together with the forthcoming TNFD guidance on transition planning, they will also facilitate the integration of nature into existing net-zero transition plans. 

What is your organisation prioritising as we look towards COP30 in Belem? 

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is crucial. Financial institutions, central banks and regulators need to maintain and strengthen their existing commitments, shifting away from environmentally harmful activities and scaling up finance for climate and nature action. This requires significant mobilization across all sectors and reallocation of finance from all available sources - public and private, domestic and international - to deliver net zero emissions by 2050. 

We urge financial institutions, regulators and policymakers to take the necessary steps to transition to a resilient, nature-positive, net-zero global economy. 

Financial institutions need to align their portfolios with 1.5°C limit pathways by setting credible, science-based targets to reduce GHG emissions and developing and implementing credible climate and nature transition plans for all assets and financial instruments.  

Policymakers need to create regulatory frameworks that enable companies and financial institutions to deliver on 1.5°C aligned climate transition plans. These include developing sectoral transition pathways, defining sustainable taxonomies, and requiring mandatory disclosure of climate- and nature-related risks using existing frameworks such as the TNFD. 

Central banks and financial regulators should recognize that the climate and nature crises are two sides of the same coin, and integrate nature risk into central banking regulation and supervision, and monetary policy. They should also take a precautionary approach to financing economic sectors that drive nature loss by, for example, imposing mandatory transition plans, setting higher capital and liquidity requirements for financial institutions, and fixing concentration limits for investments in industries where transition is not possible. 

WWF is also supportive of recent developments such as the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) whose goal is to preserve roughly 1bn ha of tropical forests globally. It is led by the Brazilian government and expected to be formally launched at COP30. This new mechanism will provide performance-based payments to tropical forest nations for forest conservation and restoration. Using its earnings to pay a fixed amount per hectare of conserved rainforest, while maintaining its principal investment intact, the TFFF aims to capitalise $125 billion with 20-25% coming from sovereign loans, guarantees or donations, and 75-80% from capital markets, including institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds.  

WWF is also calling for governments to make urgent progress in addressing shortfalls in current NDCs; halting and reversing deforestation, ecosystem degradation and conversion; accelerating an equitable, just transition to renewable energy and universal energy access; and strengthening climate adaptation and resilience. 

What are you most looking forward to discussing or hearing about at the Nature Finance Forum Europe? 

All of the above! We have high expectations for the financial sector to align investments with global biodiversity goals, scale up nature-positive financing, integrate biodiversity risks into decision-making, and increase transparency in tracking financial flows toward conservation and restoration.  

We are eager to hear about the latest developments and initiatives for successful investment models and discuss together how nature considerations can be integrated into monetary policies, regulation and investment models and how we can redirect the trillions of private capital that goes into environmentally harmful industries toward nature.