IDB and IDB Invest Approve Over $2 Billion for Biodiversity in 2023

CALI, Colombia, Oct. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and IDB Invest approved together more than $2 billion in nature finance in 2023, nearly 13% of total approvals, with more than half meeting the higher standard of nature-positive financing. The announcement was made by the IDB Executive Vice President Jordan Schwartz at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16).

The amount includes $1,33 billion for the public sector and $765 million for the private sector and reflects a series of reforms and innovative approaches towards mainstreaming biodiversity into IDB’s and IDB Invest’s structure, operational work, knowledge, and policies aiming to support countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to conserve and restore biodiversity and meet their biodiversity commitments and targets, including tracking and reporting nature finance.

For the first time, the IDB and IDB Invest have piloted tracking nature finance using its green finance principles and the Common Principles agreed by Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to implement the MDB Joint Statement on Nature, People and Planet and support Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets adopted during COP15.

“Conserving and restoring biodiversity is one of the most critical development challenges of our era now that the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity are intertwined,” said Schwartz. “This achievement is the result of a long-term commitment to mainstreaming biodiversity and scale our impact.”

“The Global Biodiversity Framework called for transforming the international financial architecture to help reach the framework’s targets. To do that, MDBs are working together in unprecedented ways to protect and mainstream biodiversity,” added Schwartz.

During the session, leaders discussed progress in reaching Target 19 of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which seeks to mobilize $200 billion per year for biodiversity from all sources, including $30 billion through international finance.

The IDB has led the Joint Statement on Nature in Glasgow and worked closely with the European Investment Bank (EIB), World Bank, and others to establishing the common principles to track nature-related finance. As chair of the MDB Heads Group, the IDB has proposed with EIB a joint MDB stock take of key performance indicators (KPIs) for biodiversity to scale up nature financing. The first stock-take workshop was held at COP16, and the results will be announced next year by COP30 in Brazil.

Internally, IDB’s new institutional strategy, IDBImpact+, includes for the first time biodiversity among its focus areas for mainstreaming and direct investment. The IDB is also implementing an action plan with specific metrics focused on mainstreaming biodiversity and natural capital and is creating a unit dedicated to biodiversity in its structure.

On nature-positive investment, the IDB has been boosting innovative finance through nature-based solutions policy guides, and instruments such as sustainability-linked bonds, biodiversity credits, and debt-for-nature conversions, generating significant funds for conservation without increasing national debt. Examples include operations in Ecuador and Barbados and the announcement, at COP, of a results-based financing program for the Jaguar Corridor, with a pilot in Colombia.

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