It is estimated that there is a biodiversity financing gap of about US$711 billion per year. In comparison, only about $133 billion was spent on biodiversity conservation in 2019, while financing for subsidies that were harmful to nature was estimated to be two to four times this amount. Twenty percent of the $133 billion was estimated to be spent on natural infrastructure, comprising mainly watershed and water resource protection measures.

Historically, infrastructure has been a significant driver of biodiversity loss and environmental pollution. In addition, it contributed to climate change on the one hand and was highly vulnerable to climate change on the other. However, the world still needed significant infrastructure expansion to make electricity, drinking water, proper sanitation, and access roads available to every individual globally. This required about $1.5 trillion of investment every year until 2030. This presented an excellent opportunity to change the narrative, scale up financing for biodiversity conservation through infrastructure projects, and contribute to achieving the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) targets.

In this session, speakers from national governments, financiers, multilateral and bilateral financiers, and NGOs discussed approaches to mobilizing finance for biodiversity conservation in infrastructure projects. Discussions covered:

• Existing approaches for including and financing biodiversity conservation activities in infrastructure projects
• Risks and opportunities posed by infrastructure development for meeting the GBF target of 30 by 30
• Financing mechanisms and instruments for financing biodiversity conservation in infrastructure projects