Environment Secretary calls for action to protect and restore nature at COP27

The Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has called for renewed global action on nature as she sets out an ambitious path forward for nature at COP’s Biodiversity Day.

Outlining the importance of next month’s vital meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, she is calling on countries to come together at that summit and agree a robust global plan for tackling nature loss. While significant progress has been made, more action is needed from both the public and private sectors to bridge the reported $700 billion funding gap needed to stop nature loss.

Our security, livelihoods and productivity depend on the global web of life including our forests and the ocean, with over half of the world’s GDP reliant on nature.

Today at Biodiversity Day, the UK Government continues to drive global efforts to embrace nature to help lower global temperatures and build a sustainable future. It will:

• Commit £30 million of seed finance into the Big Nature Impact Fund – a new public-private fund for nature in the UK which will unlock significant private investment into nature projects, such as new tree planting or restoring peatlands. Managed by Federated Hermes and Finance Earth, these habitat creation projects will aid small business growth and job creation as well as soak up carbon emissions and support cleaner air and water.
• Pledge an additional £12 million to the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance to protect and restore vulnerable coastal communities and habitats
• Commit a further £6 million to provide capacity building support to developing countries to increase commitments to nature and nature-based solutions under the Paris Agreement, through the UNDP Climate Promise.
• Announce new UK climate finance contribution of £5 million toward the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the Amazon. This will help to tackle deforestation through community-led projects harnessing local knowledge to protect the world’s most precious forests that the planet relies on, whilst providing sustainable business opportunities to Indigenous People whose livelihoods depend on forests.
• Raise awareness of the incredible importance of mangroves and their role in coastal resilience by endorsing the Mangrove Breakthrough led by the UNFCCC High-Level Champions and the Global Mangrove Alliance. This vital project aims to secure the future of vital coastal mangrove forests.
• Highlight the climate benefits of blue carbon through continued support for the new Global Ocean Decade Programme for Blue Carbon (GO-BC), which has now launched a new Global Graduate scheme for early career blue carbon researchers.

Speaking at Biodiversity Day at COP27, Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said:

“Over half of the world’s GDP reliant on nature, which is why the United Kingdom  put nature at the heart of our COP26 Presidency and led calls to protect 30 per cent of land and ocean by 2030.

“We continue to demonstrate international leadership through commitments to create a natural world that is richer in plants and wildlife to tackle the climate crisis, and at next month’s meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity we will strive for an ambitious agreement that includes a global 30by30 target, a commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and an increase in resources for the conservation and protection of nature from all sources.”

Lord Goldsmith, Minister for International Environment, Climate, Forests & Energy, said:

“The fastest route to Net Zero is restoring the world’s forests and protecting nature. And the value of forests and other ecosystems goes so much further than climate. The greatest guardians of nature has always been indigenous people, which is why the UK is delighted to support communities in the Amazon in their efforts to protect and restore their environment.”

Minister of State for Climate, Minister Graham Stuart, said:

“Businesses at home and abroad are eager to use their expertise in the fight against climate change – creating jobs while protecting our planet.

“Only by unlocking private sector capability can we protect the Amazon rainforest, an ecosystem on which the whole world relies.

“Today’s £5 million funding – in addition to the £30 million initiative already underway – will attract further investment in a part of the world that is in urgent need of our protection.”

Global momentum is now behind plans to halt nature’s decline, with 95 world leaders and over 100 non-state actors having now signed the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature which commits to global action to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

This momentum will only continue if the right incentives are in place. The UK, together with Ecuador, Gabon and the Maldives, recently led the creation of a Political Vision: 10 Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity (10PP), launched with 17 early endorsers. At COP27, ministers and representatives from 15 existing signatories and others were drawn together in a closed door meeting to kick-start next steps on translating this plan into action ahead of CBD-COP15.2 in Montreal.

As outgoing UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) COP Presidents, it is vital that the United Kingdom’s level of ambition for nature is continued under future Presidencies to achieve Net Zero goals and halt the damage that climate change is causing to our planet.

Looking ahead to UN CBD, this includes scaling strong investments into nature-based solutions, committing to protecting and restoring critical ecosystems, such as mangroves and peatlands, improving the abundance of species and plants, and halting the decline of biodiversity to create a more sustainable future and drive economic growth.