COP17 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) closed in Yerevan, Armenia, on 31 October with the Yerevan Pathway, the negotiated response to the first Global Review of progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), alongside nearly 50 decisions. The Review found that while engagement is rising, implementation – finance included – falls well short of the 2030 targets. The Yerevan Pathway sets priorities to 2030, including tackling nature-harmful subsidies and aligning national budgets with the GBF, and it leans more heavily than any previous outcome on private finance and markets.

UNEP FI’s From Cali to Yerevan report card, launched ahead of the COP and discussed at Finance and Biodiversity Day on 26 October, set the scene: the sector has built the frameworks and instruments it needs, yet finance to nature-negative activities was roughly 30 times investment in nature-based solutions in 2023, and private finance makes up only about a tenth of that investment. The CBD Secretariat reported nearly USD 2 billion in new pledges over the fortnight, including USD 560 million under GEF-9 and the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund and over USD 330 million through the Value Nature Fund. The question of which countries join the donor list was deferred to COP18 in Ecuador in 2028.

 

Nature disclosure: ISSB opens consultation on practice

Disclosure should aim to show how nature impacts transmit into financial risk and ultimately inform business and investment decisions. The ISSB used COP17 to open a 120-day consultation on a proposed Practice Statement for nature-related disclosures drawing on the TNFD recommendations and closing on 19 February 2027. The sector is divided on form: fifteen financial institutions are calling for a standalone nature standard, while others favour integration within IFRS S1 so that nature cannot be set aside.

 

Resource mobilization, nature markets and credits

Expectations for market-based approaches were discussed in Yerevan including an increasing role for nature and carbon credits, and for compensatory markets, which ensure companies pay for ecological damage caused by their activities. Some countries have concerns about the role of private finance, but demonstrating that private finance adds to, rather than substitutes for, public obligations under Article 20, and that it can reach the countries and communities with the largest gaps, can help build trust. Two reports UNEP FI launched at COP17 set out how: Making Compensatory Conservation Investable, which explains what institutional investors need before committing to market-based compensatory schemes, and a report on structuring sovereign and sub-sovereign nature bonds so proceeds flow to national biodiversity priorities.

More than 70 organizations across finance, business, conservation and Indigenous Peoples and local communities have signed the Call to Action on High-Integrity Nature Markets, developed by UNEP FI with the Green Finance Institute, IAPB, IEG, IIED and the Biodiversity Credit Alliance. It stays open until 9 November and the full list will be announced at UNFCCC COP31; UNEP FI members that have not yet signed can still do so. Additionally, the EU launched the Friends of Credits for Nature and Biodiversity with France, Peru and twelve further countries.

 

Redirecting harmful subsidies and transition pathways

Harmful subsidies and transition pathways had more airtime than at any previous biodiversity COP, though the final text only “encourages” Parties to accelerate “in accordance with national circumstances”, according to Carbon Brief’s analysis. The practical work moves to Presidency initiatives: the Yerevan call on incentives positive to biodiversity, a Friends of Target 18 group and the Yerevan Biodiversity Finance Challenge run by UNDP BIOFIN with the OECD, IISD and the CBD Secretariat. UNEP FI hosted a side event on subsidy reform and will deepen its work on transition finance and sector pathways from 2027.

 

Insurance: nature as critical infrastructure

Insurers were more visible in Yerevan than at any previous biodiversity COP, from the Finance and Biodiversity Day panel on insurance, climate risk and resilience to sessions on water security and ASEAN’s natural infrastructure. UNEP FI and UNDP brought a delegation of insurers, reinsurers and brokers, with the COP17 Briefing Note on Insurance and Nature carrying three messages: nature is infrastructure, so ecosystem health already shapes insured losses; insurance helps turn ambition into implementation through risk advice, underwriting, risk transfer and investment; and mainstreaming nature in insurance needs policy conditions to match. The next milestone is the once-a-decade IUCN World Protected and Conserved Areas Congress in Panama in 2027, where UNEP FI and PSI members will frame protected and conserved areas as infrastructure that reduces physical risk and warrants insurance and investment.

 

Indigenous Peoples, Article 8(j) and the Cali Fund

Parties adopted the Sevan Guidelines, the operating rules for the new permanent subsidiary body on Article 8(j), giving Indigenous Peoples and local communities a seat at the table in CBD decision-making. The Cali Fund decision directs half of its resources to the self-identified needs of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, yet pledges stood at only USD 10,565 by the close and key rules were deferred to COP18. Financial institutions have a direct interest: the report card calls for Indigenous Peoples to be partners in the integrity of nature markets, and companies in their portfolios that use digital sequence information are the fund’s intended contributors. UNEP FI will work with Finance for Biodiversity and business platforms to make sure members are aware of the Fund and expectations of clients in relevant sectors including pharmaceuticals and AI.

 

What members told us, and what comes next

Conversations with UNEP FI members in Yerevan revealed an appetite for opportunity: more focus on resilience-building including climate and supply chain resilience, clearer taxonomies, sector guidance and transition pathways that show where capital is needed. To support the growth in nature finance and deliver on the goals of the GBF, UNEP FI will continue to convene public and private finance – in areas such as de-risking instruments and building partnerships with development finance institutions – while equipping its members with the guidance and tools to manage nature risks and harness the opportunities.

More on the future of nature finance at UNEP FI here.

 

With thanks

Our thanks to UNEP FI members Converse Bank and ArmSwissBank, who hosted member-only events in Yerevan, as well as Nairi Insurance who hosted an insurance evening. The UNEP FI delegation and membership is sincerely grateful for their warm hospitality and the platform they created to welcome the UNEP FI community to Armenia.

 

Further reading