NAIROBI, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Doubling investments in nature protection could provide a long-term cure to a host of crises facing the planet including climate change, biodiversity loss and desertification, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report launched in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital on Thursday.
The second edition of the State of Finance for Nature Report says that investments in habitats' conservation must increase from the current 154 billion U.S. dollars to 384 billion dollars annually by 2025, in order to secure a green, resilient and prosperous future for humanity.
Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director, said that scientific consensus was categorical that countries must scale up financing to preserve health of the natural world, tame the climate crisis and avert looming extinction of species.
"We must collectively and urgently redirect and scale up capital to nature, climate and restorative-positive activities that bring us back on track towards a stable and nature-abundant planet that we can all equitably benefit from," said Anderson.
The UNEP report notes that nature positive investments remained below target, only to worsen poverty, water stress, hunger, disease and climate emergencies.
The report says the investments required to halt biodiversity loss, land degradation and shield vulnerable communities from the climate crisis should increase by 230 billion dollars annually by 2025.
According to the report, governments currently provide 83 percent of financing towards nature protection while the private sector investments towards habitats' protection currently stood at 26 billion U.S. dollars annually, equivalent of 17 percent.
The report says that enacting nature-positive regulatory and policy frameworks alone could attract more than 10 trillion dollars in new annual business value and create 395 million jobs by 2030.
"If we rapidly double finance flows to nature-based solutions, we can halt biodiversity loss, significantly contribute to reducing carbon emissions and restore close to one billion hectares of degraded land," says the report.
The report urges governments to mobilize green financing from the private sector, integrate low carbon transition into national development programs, reform supply chains and promote nature-positive consumption habits among citizenry in order to restore health of natural assets. ■
