Finance and Biodiversity Day

Seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity

October 26th, 2026 | Room CG3 (Blue Zone), Yerevan, Armenia

Four years after the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15, and two years after COP16 in Cali, Finance and Biodiversity Day brings together a globally representative group of finance sector participants to turn the framework into investable opportunities. Shaped by recent private sector dialogues, this year's program focuses on closing the gap between commitment and implementation: building credible pipelines of nature-smart projects, providing policy certainty in high-biodiversity-risk markets, developing decision-useful data, matching instruments to country context, and addressing capacity constraints. Delegates are encouraged to treat COP17 as a milestone rather than a finish line, working toward a shared agenda for financial sector engagement with the GBF beyond Yerevan.

Tentative Programmme

(Check back regularly for Programme updates)

Armenia Time (AMT)	Session	Speaker
08.30 - 09.00	Keynotes	Diego Mesa Puyo, CEO, Global Environment Facility (GEF) (TBC) Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank
09.00 - 09.30	Opening remarks
	From Risks to Resilience: Aligning Finance with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework	Hambardzum Matevosyan, Minister of Environment, Armenia Astrid Schomaker, CBD Executive Secretary Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP Vahe Hovhannisyan, Minister of Finance, Armenia Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, President, Indigenous Women & Peoples Association of Chad
09.30 - 10.30	Panel 1	Facilitator: Jessica Smith, UNEP FI
	Report Card: Financial System Alignment with the GBF Since COP16	Martin Galstyan, Governor, Central Bank of Armenia Tony Goldner, CEO, TNFD Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President, European Investment Bank Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Environment Director, OECD Marisa Drew, Chief Sustainability Officer, Standard Chartered
10.30 - 11.30	Panel 2	Facilitator: Andrew Deutz, WWF
	Scaling Finance for Nature Transition: From Commitments to Nature-smart Transition Pathways	Guangzhe Chen, Vice President, Planet, World Bank Group Yevgeniy Zhukov, Director General, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, ADB Cassie Flynn, Director, UNDP Planet Hub Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO, Storebrand AM Yann Marin, Secretary General, NGFS, and Deputy Director of Financial Stability, Banque de France
11.30 - 12.00	Fireside chat
	City Leadership in Nature and Climate Finance: From Cali to Yerevan	Tigran Avinyan, Mayor of Yerevan COP16 Presidency (TBC)
12.00 - 13.30	Lunch break
13.30 - 14.30	Panel 3	Facilitator: Lina Mondragon, CAF
	Innovative Approaches: Markets, Financial Instruments and Benefit-Sharing Mechanisms	Anita de Horde, Executive Director, Finance for Biodiversity Foundation Dame Amelia Fawcett, Co-Chair, International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits Mariana Sarmiento Aparicio, Founder, Terrasos Jacco Minnaar, Chief Commercial Officer, Triodos Bank
14.30 - 15.40	Panel 4	Facilitator: Abigail Herron, FAIRR
	Key Sector Transitions: Financing Nature-smart Opportunities	Gwen Yu, Global Head of Emerging Sustainability Issues, JPMorgan Kaveh Zahedi, Assistant Director-General, Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment, FAO Sue Lloyd, Vice-Chair, IFRS Foundation (ISSB) Shargiil Bashir, Chief Sustainability Officer, First Abu Dhabi Bank
15.40 - 16.30	Coffee break
16.30 - 17.10	Panel 5	Facilitator: Verena Kauss, UNEP FI
	Insurance, Climate Risk, and Resilience Finance for Nature	Ricardo Lara, California Insurance Commissioner Claudine Blamey, Chief Sustainability Officer, Aviva Fatoumata Bouare, Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, EBRD
17.10 - 18.10	Panel 6	Facilitator: Subhra Bhattacharjee, Forest Stewardship Council International
	Financing Critical and Underfunded Ecosystems and Biomes	Gabriel Azevedo, Head of Amazonia Unit, IDB Pierre Bardoux, Director, UN Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) / One Ocean Finance Jennifer Tauli Corpuz, Co-lead, Resource Mobilization Working Group, International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) African Development Bank (speaker TBC) Karine Hertzberg, TFFF Board Co-Chair and Senior Advisor, Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI)