Purpose

Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems underpin our economic prosperity and societal resilience, in particular food and water security, climate resilience, human well-being and livelihoods. Yet, global financial flows remain insufficiently aligned with the objectives of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and the transition required to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

Achieving the goals and targets of the KMGBF will therefore require not only mobilizing additional resources for biodiversity, but also changing the direction of existing financial flows and incentives that continue to drive biodiversity loss.

The latest evidence underscores the scale of this challenge. In 2026, UNEP’s State of Finance for Nature estimates that in 2023 for every US$1 spent to protect ecosystems, US$30 went toward activities that harm them. The evidence therefore emphasizes that redirecting existing financial flows and incentives is as important as mobilizing additional financial resources.

This high-level roundtable will explore how governments, international financial institutions, financial regulators, investors, businesses and other stakeholders can work together to shift the direction of finance: reforming incentives and financial flows that drive biodiversity loss, integrating nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities into financial decision-making, mobilizing additional public and private capital for nature-positive outcomes, and improving equitable and effective access to finance.

Context

Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are deeply interconnected with climate change, land degradation and broader development challenges. While highlighting the growing global mobilization for biodiversity, the first Global Report of Collective Progress (2026) under the KMGBF underscores that collective progress remains insufficient to achieve the 2030 targets, in particular those related to finance and policy coherence for biodiversity.

The KMGBF calls for the identification, elimination, phase-out or reform of incentives, including subsidies, harmful to biodiversity, in a proportionate, just, fair, effective and equitable manner, while substantially and progressively reducing them by at least US$500 billion per year by 2030 and scaling up positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity (Target 18) and for the mobilization of at least US$200 billion annually by 2030 (Target 19), including at least US$30 billion per year in international finance for biodiversity. Delivering these commitments will require greater policy coherence and the wider international development and financial architecture. At the national level, this also requires strengthening domestic resource mobilization, including through biodiversity finance plans, fiscal policy, public expenditure alignment and the integration of biodiversity considerations into national development and investment planning.

Roundtable’s objectives

This high-level roundtable aims to translate political vision into concrete policy outcomes. Specifically, it will:

• Explore how governments can identify and reform subsidies harmful to biodiversity and other incentives, while ensuring that reforms are socially fair, economically viable and accompanied by appropriate transition measures.
• Explore how financial policies, regulation, supervision, disclosure, risk management and investment frameworks can better integrate nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities into financial decision-making.
• Identify how public policy can facilitate increased public and private investment to unlock additional long-term capital and improve access to finance, particularly for developing countries.
• Explore how finance can become more accessible, predictable, effective and equitable, including through direct and appropriate support for IPLCs and community-based approaches.

Expected outcomes

This roundtable will seek to generate a concise, high-impact set of Leaders for Nature messages, structured around the following pillars:

1.  Repurpose: commit to the progressive and equitable reform of biodiversity-harmful incentives toward biodiversity and the realignment of public financial flows towards biodiversity-positive outcomes.

2. Align: integrate nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities into financial decision-making, risk management, supervision, disclosure and capital allocation, while improving the availability and quality of nature-related information.

3.  Mobilize: Use public, development and concessional finance where it can catalyse private investment, while recognizing that some biodiversity outcomes require sustained public finance and cannot be fully commercialized.

The messages emerging from the discussion will inform the political deliberations of the Leaders for Nature Summit and contribute to the development of the Yerevan Call to Action, to be adopted at the conclusion of the Summit.