UNEA-6: Nature-based solutions for climate facing a funding crisis, says Andersen

Nature-based solutions to the global climate crisis remain grossly underfunded, receiving only a fraction of what is needed to help them make a significant contribution in taming the crisis.

The solutions receive only about $200 billion globally a year, which is less than a third of the over $600 billion required annually by 2030, to meet the goals of climate, biodiversity loss and halting land degradation.

Even worse, their importance is being made more urgent by continued investments in sectors and in ways that harm nature and worsen climate change, said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), at the ongoing Sixth United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6) in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

“They are not just underfunded, however. They are being undone by $7 trillion in nature-negative finance that flows annually from harmful subsides and investments,” Andersen said.

With the money not forthcoming, ending “nature-negative finance flows” remained the best way to halt and reverse the losses, Andersen noted.

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“We need to change the incentives, in this case policies. We need to provide the data on long-term economic losses and shift business practices and our understanding as well as the way we do business,” Andersen said.

Nature-based solutions include reforestation, afforestation and land restoration which have the potential to slow down the climate crisis and build resilience among communities by halting the loss and restoring biodiversity.

Andersen noted that in urban areas, forests provided a “vital connection to nature” and helped cool the extreme temperatures that have not been experienced in all parts of the world, including in temperate climates in recent years.

The assembly, she said, was gathering in Nairobi, to find “inclusive multilateral solutions” to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and the crisis of pollution and waste.

“We are doing so because a stable climate, healthy nature and pollution-free planet are the bedrock of our societies and economies,” the director remarked.

Andersen spoke at a session on Science-Policy Business Forum on February 28 during UNEA-6 at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, where she made a case for nature- based solutions to the triple crisis, particularly in urban settings.

Investment opportunities, especially in Africa, respecting the integrity of protected areas while avoiding deforestation have the potential to be particularly cost-effective, she explained.

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Andersen made a case for debt for climate and nature swaps as previously proposed by a number of developing countries, currently faced by a debt crisis.

“These swaps can provide a solution to the interconnected challenges of debt, climate and nature loss — especially. They can open-up fiscal space, leverage additional finance and develop regional approaches for shared ecosystems,” she noted, citing the example of the Latin American country of Ecuador.

The country, she said, had made a debt-for-nature swap, saving it $1.1 billion in loan repayments while providing no less than $450 million for conservation programmes.

“UNEP is exploring debt for climate and nature swaps in the Latin America and Caribbean region. A key proposal of our technical approach was the development of a regional framework to promote sustainability and manage debt, which would strengthen collaboration, solidarity and solvability,” Andersen said.

At the same time, the assembly on February 28 launched a call for nominations for its Young Champions of the Earth award, which recognises youth’s contributions in efforts to protect the environment.

The call is seeking seven young people, aged between 18 and 30 years, already undertaking initiatives to protect the environment to fight climate change. The Young Champions of the Earth is led in partnership with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and in support of the new Global Biodiversity Framework.

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