Convening governments, private actors, international organizations, and knowledge institutions, this high-level side-event will provide a unique platform for sharing practical experiences, lessons learned, and approaches to achieving Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

This high-level side-event will showcase the latest progress by countries in addressing biodiversity-harmful financial flows, including national assessments and reform processes. Participants will gain insights into recent efforts undertaken by national governments, enabling them to advance national and global efforts to reform harmful financial flows and scale up biodiversity positive finance. The event will also discuss how the private sector can support public action and explore next steps to jointly take together.

COP17 represents a critical moment to accelerate these efforts. This event will foster dialogue between countries at different stages of subsidy identification and reform, and identify actionable pathways to transform financial flows in support of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

The session aims to:

• Learn from the efforts initiated by the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Colombia (tbc), Armenia and Finland to meet Target 18 of the GBF in relation to identifying biodiversity harmful financial flows, including the results of national assessments and potential next steps
• Inspire national governments to act on Target 18 by providing them with experiences and best practices on how to develop a methodology and initiate a reform process of financial flows identified as harmful
• Explore how international collaboration between public and private stakeholders on advancing Target 18 can be strengthened

Expected Outcomes

• Increased visibility of efforts undertaken by national governments on identifying and reforming biodiversity harmful financial flows
• Exchange of experiences and lessons learned on identifying and reforming biodiversity harmful financial flows and scaling up positive financial flows
• Identification of opportunities for future collaboration between public and private actors and joint initiatives
• Concrete recommendations for advancing the financing agenda under the Global Biodiversity Framework 

The provisional program will be shared online shortly.