COP17 in Yerevan opens the first global review of collective progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The review will confirm what most already sense, that closing the gap depends on private capital, and it is not yet moving at the scale the GBF needs. Target 19 calls for $200 billion a year by 2030, the gap sits near $700 billion, and public money is contracting as development aid falls 9 to 17%.

Demand is real. Over half of asset owners in the UK already invest in natural capital, and consultant searches for natural capital managers now outpace those for real estate. IPBES-12 has put a floor under the case, establishing biodiversity loss as a systemic risk to financial stability. What holds capital back is rarely appetite but a market that cannot consistently describe, compare or risk-assess what it is investing in.

This event brings together the co-conveners of Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), UNDP BIOFIN, FSD Africa, and Birdlife, alongside investors including Aviva, BTG Pactual, Church of England Pensions Board, and Rebalance Earth to address that, in practice. We will look at how investors are investing in a way that aligns with the GBF across the three reasons they invest, managing nature risk, capturing growth, and delivering measurable impact. The IIGCC will share a practical approach for describing any nature investment through a consistent set of attributes, regardless of label, and put it to the room for feedback. The aim is clear, and we need to turn the ambition of the global review into steps investors can act on.