COP16 talks featured an extended session in Rome in February, where negotiators sought to address a $942 billion shortfall in the funds believed to be required to protect and restore nature.
By Samantha Willis, Biodiversity Consultant at Ramboll
In a significant step towards global nature recovery, bridging the Nature-Finance gap was at the heart of negotiations during the recent extended COP 16 session, which concluded in Rome on the 27th February. The Nature-Finance gap refers to the shortfall between available funds and the financing needed to successfully protect and restore nature effectively, a gap that is currently expanding and is estimated to have grown to an eye-watering $942 billion. As biodiversity continues to decline at an alarming rate, the restoration bill only increases, widening the gap, making it vital that COP 16 leads to secure financial commitments and positive action.
“Nature loss exacerbates climate change, undermines food security and puts people and communities at risk. We must act fast to reverse biodiversity loss – time is not on our side” (WWF, 2023)
The Rome meeting was the second bite of the cherry after talks broke down at COP16 in Cali last year. Nations reaffirmed their commitments to the Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s (KMGBF) strategic vision and global ambition of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. Implementation was a central topic focussing on financial resource mobilisation and robust review mechanisms by parties. The framework had been ratified at the previous COP 15, setting a number of specific targets, including the target of protecting 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030.
Implementation of these targets over the next five years is critical given the track record of no goals set in previous summits being met. As of October 2024, only 17.16% of land and 8.4% of marine areas are under protection, meaning the surface area of protected land must double by 2030.
‘More work is needed to scale up the coverage and to place protected and conserved areas where they are most needed’ (Protected Planet Report, 2024)
The effectiveness of implementation and accountability mechanisms remain a challenge when working towards the targets set out in the KMGBF. Gaps remain in actual financial commitments, and ambitious targets are yet to be realised. Worryingly, more than half of the world’s countries arrived at COP 16 with no plans to protect 30% of their nature, and only 44 out of 196 countries submitted their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans prior to the summit in Colombia last year. With only five years to double the amount of protected land, solid commitments and accountability must be prioritised.
Samantha Willis of Ramboll.
Discussions during COP 16 did not shy away from these shortcomings, and a framework for accountability was created. The ‘Planning, Monitoring, Reporting, and Review’ (PMRR) framework was established to track progress towards targets, providing a tool to hold countries accountable and address any gaps in implementation. The framework mandates regular monitoring of biodiversity status and conservation efforts, requiring countries to gather data on specific indicators to assess changes to biodiversity. Results must be submitted by national governments in regular reports and will be reviewed during future summits. The framework has the potential to improve and track progress towards the framework’s goals and highlight any gaps in advancement.
As important as raising money to support the bridging of the Nature-Finance gap is, nations must also prioritise how this funding will be mobilised in order to ensure the best outcomes for nature and biodiversity. During the summit in Rome, a Strategy for Resource Mobilisation was adopted. The Strategy identified a number of mechanisms needed for the implementation of the KMGBF, including a range of public, national and subnational finance streams and private and philanthropic resources.
Ensuring companies pay fair compensation for their use of biodiversity and ecosystem services is a necessary step towards bridging the gap and could offer a consistent stream of finance that can be funnelled into conservation. A recent example of pharmaceutical and biotech companies benefitting greatly from nature is GLP-1 (the critical hormone in Ozempic), which was inspired by the genome of the Gila Monster. The global market for GLP-1 receptor agonists is now valued to be approximately $53.46 billion in weight loss and diabetes treatments.
A major development towards this goal is the Cali Fund for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of Digital Sequence Information (DSI) on Genetic Resources – where genetic data are stored and shared digitally, often crucial for scientific research and biotechnology development. The fund aims to collect contributions (0.1% of profits or 1% of revenue) from biotech companies benefitting from DSI from native species. Funds such as this are an opportunity for biodiversity rich countries – often developing countries – to see benefits from the use of genomes sourced from their ecosystems.
‘The rush to access the gold mine of genetic data must not leave behind the communities who protect these genetic resources, that is where the Cali Fund is a real game changer’ (Elizabeth Mrema, Deputy Executive of UNEP, 2025)
The consequences for environmental justice and social impacts are also important to the equitable sharing of wealth from natural resources. As reported by the UN, Indigenous people own, occupy or use up to 22% of the global land area. Indigenous people are often stewards of their land, holding knowledge and data within their cultures that is vital to biodiversity conservation. In 2024’s COP 16, a subsidiary body for Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) was created to ensure Indigenous voices are heard during global biodiversity decisions. Positively, half of the funds accumulated by the Cali Fund will be allocated to the Indigenous communities that manage biodiverse ecosystems. However, there’s more to be done to ensure Indigenous people remain at the heart of conservation. A review of the international progress towards the KMGBF’s targets flagged the potential of inequitable governance, with less than 4% of protected land being governed by Indigenous people and local communities.
It is clear that investors and businesses must work together to bridge the Nature-Finance gap. Blended finance and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) offer opportunities for businesses and governments to work together to clear some of the hurdles in the way of nature-based investments. Blended finance is a strategic approach that aims to combine public, philanthropic and private capital to finance projects that have environmental benefits and can reduce the perceived high-risk of nature-based investments. PPPs in Nature Finance also foster collaboration between governments, businesses and financial institutions, allowing for risk-sharing between public and private sectors and enabling large-scale, long-term investments by sharing out risk.
The conclusion of COP 16 in Rome marked a historic moment for bridging the Nature-Finance gap, through the focus on monitoring and review, new financial biodiversity pledges, and the inclusion of Indigenous people. As governments navigate the next five years, the success of these frameworks will depend on the commitment to safeguarding biodiversity and natural resources for future generations. While governments can define national plans and create the mechanisms, the message to business and financial institutions from COP 16 Rome is clearer and stronger, the majority of protection and restoration is relying on them to close the Nature-Finance funding gap.
