Geneva: G20 country investments in nature-based solutions (NbS) need to reach USD 285 billion/year by 2050 to address the interrelated climate, biodiversity, and land degradation crises, said the United National Environment Program(UNEP) on Friday.
According to the new UNEP reports, Sate of Finance for Nature in the G20 the current G-20 spending is only USD 120 billion/year.
The reports also revealed that the spending gap in non-G20 countries is larger and more difficult to bridge than in G20 countries, but only 2 percent of the G20’s USD 120 billion investment was directed towards official development assistance (ODA).
“Private sector investments remain small, at just 11 percent or USD 14 billion/year, even though the private sector contributes 60 percent of the total national GDP in most G20 countries. Thus, the business and investment case for nature needs to be made stronger” the report mentioned.
The report also discloses that G20 investments represent 92 percent of all global investments in NbS in 2020. Furthermore, the vast majority of these G20 investments, 87 percent or USD 105 billion, were distributed internally towards domestic government programs.
The agency said these findings confirm the urgency to increase net-zero and nature-positive investments to close the biodiversity and climate finance gaps, as reflected in the Global Biodiversity Framworl’s Target 19 of UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and in the Glasgow Climate pact of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)
They also reinforce the need to accelerate land restoration around the globe, as declared by the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration 2021-30
Based on the findings UNEP also called upon G-20 nations the annual investment needs to increase by at least 140 percent to meet all agreed biodiversity, land restoration, and climate targets by 2050, which means an additional USD 165 billion per year, especially in ODA and private sector spending.
” To put this into perspective, more than USD 14.6 trillion was spent by 50 leading economies in 2020 in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, of which only USD 368 billion, or 2 percent was considered ‘green’ by a 2021 UNEP report,” it said.
At the global investment level, future investment in NbS needs to increase four-fold by 2050, equating to an annual investment of over USD 536 billion/year.
The future investment needs for G20 countries account for approximately 40 percent of this total global investment in 2050.
Justin Adams, World Economic Forum Director for Nature-Based Solutions said, “The climate and nature crisis are two sides of the same coin, and we can’t turn things around unless we transform our economic models and market systems to take nature’s full value into account.”
The report also calls for G20 Member States to seize opportunities to increase investment in non-G20 countries, which can often be more cost-effective and efficient than investing in similar nature-based solutions internally.
“In many instances, G20 countries can improve economic efficiency in nature-based solutions spending by targeting investments in non-G20 countries,’’ noted Nina Bisom, Coordinator of Economics for the Land Degradation Initiative said.