The Seventeenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17)—also commonly referred to as the United Nations Biodiversity Conference 2026—to be held in Yerevan, Armenia on 19 to 30 October 2026 comes at the heels of the latest announcement on the global annual biodiversity financing gap, which stands at $1.317 trillion, according to BloombergNEF.

The Nature Solutions Finance Hub (NSFH), led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is organizing four side events at the CBD COP17, as part of ADB’s overall participation. The NSFH-supported sessions underscore the theme of the conference, “Taking Action for Nature”, specifically capitalizing on partnerships to scale up finance for biodiversity and nature-positive investments in Asia and the Pacific and helping deliver the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). The NSFH sessions will emphasize strong collaboration as the ideal approach toward closing the financing gap, presenting early pipeline results and lessons and launching new facilities to advance nature-based solutions and nature finance uptake.

The UN Biodiversity Conference 2026 will mark the first global review of collective progress toward the KMGBF implementation. This is a crucial moment to present beyond pledges. The losses will simply be far too great if nature is not protected. Now is the time to integrate nature into mainstream investments and national financial frameworks, and make nature bankable and sustainable.

Below is the list of NSFH sessions at CBD COP17. Click each session for more details about the event. Sessions 2 to 4 will be live-streamed through the DevAsia YouTube channel. 

1. From Commitment to Capital: Scaling Nature-Positive Investment through the ADB-EU Partnership in the Nature Solutions Finance Hub — 26 October 2026 (Monday), 4:00–5:30 p.m., ASEAN Pavilion
2. Mobilizing Capital for Biodiversity: Scaling Nature Finance through Capital Markets — 27 October 2026 (Tuesday), 1:15–2:30 p.m., MDB Pavilion
3. Nature in Financial Regulation: Global Lessons for Central Banks and Supervisors — 28 October 2026 (Wednesday), 8:15–9:30 a.m., MDB Pavilion
4. Nature Finance Taxonomy: A Discussion Towards a Common Understanding and Scaling Impact — 28 October 2026 (Wednesday), 5:00–6:15 p.m., MDB Pavilion

The Nature Solutions Finance Hub (NSFH) is an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led initiative that unites multiple partners to scale innovative nature finance across Asia and the Pacific. Launched at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2023, the NSFH includes the following financing partners: the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the European Union (EU), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility (ACGF) Green Recovery Program, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OPEC Fund), and the UK-ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility. The NSFH technical partners include BirdLife International, Conservation International, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), NatureFinance, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).