Global Press Release
Developed Countries Must Urgently Pay More To Combat Global Biodiversity Loss by 2025 Deadline, New Study Reveals
London - 20th June 2024
New ODI research has found that only two out of 28 developed countries were contributing their fair share of an internationally agreed commitment to provide $20 billion per year in biodiversity finance to developing countries, with most of them needing to at least double their funding to help halt and reverse biodiversity loss across our planet. With just months to go until the agreed deadline, this report is sounding the alarm for an urgent and significant increase in nature funding.
The report by the global affairs think tank ODI, commissioned by the Campaign for Nature, is the first study to measure how much each developed country should be paying to developing countries in order to keep the commitment they made in the landmark 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
In the GBF, the world agreed to ambitious targets to combat biodiversity loss. To help achieve them, developed countries agreed to contribute collectively at least $20 billion per year to developing countries by 2025. This was elevated to a leader level commitment in the G7 leaders communique last week. The report’s calculations took into account countries’ historical impact on biodiversity, their ability to pay and population size in calculating what they should pay. The report utilised the most recent official public OECD data. The report’s findings articulate what ambition on biodiversity finance must look like for each developed country.
It found that Norway and Sweden were the only countries providing more than their fair share, Germany and France were providing 99% and 92% respectively and Australia was at 74% of its fair share.
The largest dollar gaps were in Japan, the UK, Italy, Canada, Korea and Spain. Together, they account for 71% of the aggregate shortfall. This report lays out how the gap can be closed before time runs out.
The report - “A fair share of biodiversity finance: Apportioning responsibility for the $20 billion target by 2025” - comes as experts find biodiversity loss accelerating at an unprecedented rate.
Almost half of all species on earth are undergoing population declines, with up to one million species facing possible extinction, many within decades, a rate never seen before in human history. Successfully addressing this crisis will depend on whether the world invests enough to halt biodiversity collapse. This annual $20 billion by 2025 agreement is the first test, the report says.
In response to the report, Campaign for Nature has set out recommendations, including calling on:
Developed countries, who are responsible for delivering the annual $20 billion, to:
Urgently increase funding to meet their fair share to developing countries and ensure they reach the collective target by 2025;
Immediately launch a ministerial level initiative to coordinate the delivery of this funding;
Mobilize private resources through regulation and incentives, which alongside public finance and philanthropic contributions can help meet the $20 billion target;
Wealthy countries who are not members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee cited in the report should make substantial contributions, voluntarily assuming financing responsibilities to developing countries as agreed in the GBF;
The United States, which is not a party to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, but has the largest economy in the world and the largest historical biodiversity footprint, to urgently and significantly increase its international nature finance.
Campaign for Nature argues that while some countries have contributed more since the data was recorded, there is no official tally of those contributions and they are unlikely to have been substantial enough to materially move the needle. Progress on this $20 billion promise is now critical to building trust between the Global North and South for the upcoming nature COP16 in Colombia, as much of the world's remaining biodiversity is located in developing countries who will bear a disproportionate share of the responsibility and costs of saving precious biomes.
Furthermore, Campaign for Nature outlines that increasing funding to protect global biodiversity isn’t an act of charity, it is an obligation developed countries took as part of a commitment by all countries to increase nature finance to close the biodiversity gap. The sum of $20 billion is a relatively small but important contribution to developing countries’ stewardship of the biological resources and ecosystem services that the global community depends on. Investment is crucial for safeguarding a liveable planet as the continued loss of nature will have serious implications for food and water supplies, our climate, disease outbreaks, as well as peace and security globally.
Campaign for Nature further emphasizes that there is a high economic return on investment in nature. According to the World Economic Forum, half of global GDP ($44 trillion per year) is dependent on nature. There is also a cost to inaction. Analysis from the OECD finds that from 1997 to 2011, the world lost between $4-20 trillion every year due to factors such as lower crop yields, fewer fish catches, higher costs due to flooding, and loss of potential new sources of medicine.
A coalition of non-governmental, Indigenous and youth organizations recently launched a ‘$20 billion x 25 campaign’, calling on developed country parties, and countries voluntarily assuming developed country parties’ obligations, to urgently accelerate efforts to increase finance for developing country parties.
Laetitia Pettinotti, Lead Author and Research Fellow at ODI, said: “Failing to reach the target undermines the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and damages trust. But far more importantly, this failure represents a genuine threat to our shared prosperity, livelihoods, economies and health. We hope this report serves as a wake-up call for high income countries to fulfil their obligations – their contributions to biodiversity finance are critically important and must increase”
Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, said: “The world is already spending $1.8 trillion each year on subsidizing industries that are destroying nature. The pledge of $20 billion a year is equivalent to only 1.1%, or about four days, of those subsidies. Wealthy governments have no excuse but to act with greater urgency to deliver on the promise that they made at COP15 to deliver finance to poorer countries by 2025. I implore political leaders to see this report not as a critique of their efforts so far, but as a tool that will incentivize their treasuries to invest and ensure this planet and the people living on it cannot just survive, but live in harmony and thrive.”
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Notes to the Editor
What do we mean by “fair share”?
ODI assesses each developed country’s fair share of the annual $20 billion by 2025 commitment (noting that this is a minimum target) based on each country’s historic responsibility for biodiversity depletion measured by ecological footprint over the past 60 years, capacity to pay, measured by gross national income, and population.
The analysis then examines each developed country’s progress towards their fair share of biodiversity finance provision in 2021, the most recent year for which OECD DAC (OECD Development Assistance Committee) data is available, which provides a baseline to benchmark developed countries’ progress as they approach the target’s first delivery date in 2025.
About ODI
Formerly the Overseas Development Institute, ODI is an independent and internationally recognised think tank, producing thoughtful insights and actionable ideas to help solve the world’s most pressing challenges.
It is a trusted partner to many governments and global organisations and convenes an extensive global network.
Its team of more than 200 staff carries out world-leading work spanning a portfolio of the hardest and most pressing challenges for people and planet. It puts the principles of equity, inclusive growth, social justice and sustainability at the heart of what it does.
About Campaign for Nature
Campaign for Nature is a not-for-profit organization whose aim is to: support the successful implementation of the ambitious global goal to protect 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030; ensure that biodiversity conservation is conducted in a way that fully integrates and respects Indigenous peoples rights and leadership; help mobilize financial resources to ensure protected areas are properly managed in perpetuity.