The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene in Yerevan, Armenia, this October for the first global review of collective progress towards the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)—the first formal assessment of what has changed since its adoption in 2022. COP17 also comes one year after the launch of the Cali Resource Mobilization Strategy, a global biodiversity finance framework adopted under the CBD targeting at least US $200 billion per year by 2030.
Key finance events at COP17:
Please contact Rafael Lopez for information on attendance.
22 October | 12:00–12:45 (UTC+04:00) | From compliance to asset class: making compensatory conservation investable
Location: UNEP WCMC Business and Finance Pavilion, Blue Zone
This session will bring together governments, institutional investors, private finance institutions, project developers and other market participants to examine what it takes for compensatory conservation schemes, including habitat banks and compliance-based biodiversity credit schemes, to attract institutional capital at scale. Discussion will focus on the policy and regulatory conditions that give investors the revenue certainty, governance and permanence they require for these nature markets to grow. The session is co-hosted by UNEP FI and the C2S2 Network.
22 October | 16:45–17:45 (UTC+04:00) | From commitments to action: circular economy as a nature-positive finance opportunity
Location: Netherlands Pavilion, Blue Zone
UNEP FI will be taking part in this panel discussion exploring how circular economy business models can help achieve global biodiversity targets by mobilizing finance and creating positive incentives for nature-positive investments. Focusing on CBD Targets 18 and 19, speakers from finance, business, and environmental organisations will examine how approaches such as circular waste management, regenerative agriculture, asset refurbishment, leasing, and extending product lifecycles can generate scalable, investable, and measurable biodiversity outcomes.
23 October | 09:00–10:00 (UTC+04:00) | Insuring the nature-positive transition
Location: Nature Positive Pavilion, Blue Zone
This session, co-hosted by UNEP FI, aims to show how insurance can help deliver a nature-positive economy, and why it has every reason to. The session is structured around the two halves of its subtitle. First, nature positive as an opportunity agenda: how insurers move from assessing their nature-related risk to mainstreaming nature in their business and supporting the transition of the sectors they cover, and what that transition needs. Second, nature positive as a risk management agenda: why protecting and restoring nature is resilience for businesses and insurers alike, how its effect can be tracked, and what would bring public policy and private action closer together.
Speakers include Marika Rueter (AXA), William Butler (GaiaSicura), Charlie Dixon (Green Finance Institute), Jamie Balto (The Landbanking Group), and Verena Kraus (UNEP FI) as moderator.
23 October | 09:00–10:30 (UTC+04:00) | Closing the capacity gap: scaling TNFD readiness in developing markets
Location: TNFD HIVE
Nature-related financial disclosure has rapidly become a global market and policy priority, with more than 700 organizations across 50+ countries committing to TNFD-aligned reporting by late 2025 and growing alignment with international sustainability standards and biodiversity goals. As the focus shifts from framework development to implementation, a key challenge is building the technical capacity needed for high-quality disclosures, particularly in developing and emerging markets. With UNEP FI taking part as a speaker, this session will review progress, share lessons on adapting capacity-building to national contexts, address common implementation challenges, and identify priorities for strengthening nature-related disclosure capabilities in developing markets.
23 October | 11:00–12:00 (UTC+04:00) | From raw to regenerative: financing Africa’s blue bioeconomy
Location: Nature Positive Pavilion, Blue Zone
Africa’s aquatic ecosystems underpin an estimated 49 million jobs, yet the continent captures less than 10% of the value of its aquatic biomass. As biodiversity loss, climate pressures and resource constraints intensify, Africa urgently needs to capture more value locally. UNEP FI will be speaking in this session that showcases practical approaches to strengthening blue bioeconomy value chains—from aquaculture and seaweed to fisheries by-products and marine protected areas—by developing investable pipelines, mobilizing finance, strengthening enabling policies and building capacity.
23 October | 11:00–12:30 (UTC+04:00) | Nature report preparers forum dialogue: advancing regional experiences at COP17
Location: TNFD HIVE
This interactive dialogue, co-hosted by UNEP FI, will bring together companies and partners to exchange practical experiences on implementing Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework and advancing TNFD-aligned assessment, reporting, and disclosure. The discussion will focus on methodologies and metrics for assessing nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, as well as nature-related reporting and disclosure, including lessons learned, challenges and stakeholder engagement.
Register your interest here.
23 October | 13:00–14:00 (UTC+04:00) | Quantifying nature-related risk: methods and insights
Location: TNFD HIVE
As organisations move from identifying nature-related dependencies and impacts towards assessing nature-related risks and their financial impacts, a key challenge is turning complex nature data into decision-useful measures of risk. This session, with UNEP FI as one of the speakers, will explore emerging approaches for quantifying nature-related physical, transition and systemic risks, drawing on practical experience from organisations and the latest research across the market.
23 October | 16:00–16:55 (UTC+04:00) | Public-private collaborations for nature
Location: TNFD HIVE
This session is part of the World Biodiversity Summit, an event focusing on aligning finance with biodiversity goals, mobilizing investment for nature and accelerating cross-sector implementation. Hosted by the World Climate Foundation in collaboration with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), with UNEP FI taking part as a speaker, this session will explore how nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities can be integrated into financial and business decision-making to translate commitments into investment and action.
Register your interest here.
24 October | 12:30–13:30 (UTC+04:00) | From risk to opportunity: how stock exchanges can mainstream nature in capital markets
Location: TNFD Hive
Nature loss is now a systemic financial risk, but capital markets also hold the key to reversing it. As COP17 convenes to advance the GBF, this session asks: what would it take for every stock exchange in the world to treat nature the way it now treats climate? Bringing together exchange leadership, regulators, investors, listed companies and standard setters, this session explores the practical levers – listing rules, disclosure requirements, voluntary norms, standards adoption, indices and capacity building – that can embed nature-related risks and opportunities into the DNA of capital markets. The session is hosted by UN SSE, TNFD, WBCSD, PRI and UNEP FI.
Register your interest here.
24 October | 14:00–15:00 (UTC+04:00) | Counting what counts: closing the private nature finance reporting gap
Location: FfB – FAIRR Pavilion, Blue Zone
As governments and financial institutions work to deliver the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a major challenge remains: tracking private finance for nature. While public biodiversity finance is relatively well documented, current reporting systems capture only a fraction of private investment, creating a significant data gap that obscures progress toward Target 19. An informal COP17 roundtable hosted by the CBD Secretariat, UNEP FI, UNDP BIOFIN and Climate Policy Initiative will explore practical solutions to close this gap, including a common reporting framework, country validation processes, and agreed methodologies for measuring private finance flows.
25 October | 14:00–15:00 (UTC+04:00) | Insuring nature close to home: where local governments, communities and insurance meet
Location: Subnational and Local Government Hub, Blue Zone
This session, co-hosted by UNEP FI, brings together local governments, communities and insurers to explore how nature can protect cities and regions, and how insurance can help keep that protection within reach. Trees and green spaces cool neighborhoods, wetlands take in stormwater and healthy uplands hold soil and water, while access to green space supports health and wellbeing. Drawing on practical cases, the discussion will examine how insurers’ risk knowledge can support local planning, how insurance can cover the risks of investing in nature and pay for its repair, and what local and regional governments can do to keep insurance available and affordable.
Speakers include Daniela Rizzi (ICLEI), Fei Leng (UNDP), Deborah Halberstadt (California Department of Insurance), Hiroko Urashima (MS&AD), and Thomas Viegas (Aviva).
25 October | 15:20–16:40 (UTC+04:00) | COP 17 business and biodiversity forum plenary – Mobilizing capital for biodiversity: aligning financial flows and incentives with the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
Location: Meridian Expo and Event Centre, Blue Zone
Achieving the goals and targets of the Framework will require both increased financial resources for biodiversity and greater alignment of the financial flows and economic incentives that shape investment and business decisions. The session will explore how governments, development finance institutions, private finance and businesses can work together to mobilize capital, strengthen enabling conditions and redirect financial flows towards activities that support the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
26 October | Finance and Biodiversity Day
Finance and Biodiversity Day is organized by the Convention on Biological Diversity with UNEP FI contributing to the agenda:
09:30–10:30 | Panel 1 | Report card: financial system alignment with the Global Biodiversity Framework since COP16
In the two years since COP16 in Cali, the finance sector has made significant progress in building the foundations for nature finance, but stronger action and clearer government policies are needed to meet global biodiversity targets for 2030. This panel discussion will be facilitated by Jessica Smith, Head of Nature at UNEP FI.
16:30–17:10 | Panel 5 | Insurance, climate risk, and resilience finance for nature
This panel, hosted by UNEP FI, will examine the growing collaboration between insurers, reinsurers, and development finance institutions in scaling climate adaptation and nature resilience finance.
View the full agenda here.
26 October | 13:00–13:45 (UTC+04:00) | Public-private partnership: how to accelerate biodiversity actions – locally and globally
Location: Nordic Pavilion, Blue Zone
With the KMGBF facing its first global review of progress at COP17, the debate will focus on what it takes to move from commitments to implementation, and how partnerships between governments, business, finance and civil society can deliver results for nature. It is the second event in a three-part series on public-private partnership for biodiversity, which started at COP16 in Cali and will conclude at COP18. UNEP FI will be participating in this event as a speaker.
26 October | 18:15-19:35 (UTC+04:00) | Environmentally harmful subsidies reform amidst geopolitical tensions and rising fuel prices
Location: Jermuk – African States meeting room, Blue Zone
Environmentally harmful subsidies continue to drive biodiversity loss, carbon emissions, and unsustainable resource use across sectors such as fisheries, agriculture, and fossil fuels, eroding economic productivity and market stability. This side event, hosted by IISD, the B Team, BwB, Bridging ventures, Business for Nature, the Government of Mozambique, IIED, the Pew Charitable trust, UNDP, and UNEP FI, will discuss how countries can advance ambitious and socially equitable reform of environmentally harmful subsidies while simultaneously navigating challenges from rising geopolitical pressures and instability, energy and food security, and livelihood concerns.
27 October | 10:00–11:00 (UTC+04:00) | Insuring water security
Location: Netherlands Pavilion, Blue Zone
Too much and too little water are two sides of one risk, with floods among the losses insurers know best, while drought and water shortage reach them more slowly. The session, co-hosted by UNEP FI, examines how insurers respond to both sides of water risk and what it takes to act together with banks and governments.
Speakers include Thomas Viegas (Aviva), Hiroko Urashima (MS&AD), Simon Scholl (Triodos Bank), moderated by Verena Kraus (UNEP FI).
27 October | 13:00–13:45 (UTC+04:00) | Mobilising resources for nature: a showcase of biodiversity finance solutions
Location: Biodiversity and Finance (B&F) Hub, Blue Zone
As countries work to close the biodiversity finance gap and deliver on Target 19 of the Global Biodiversity Framework, financial institutions have a critical role to play in channelling resources toward nature-positive outcomes. This side-event, co-hosted by the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, UNEP FI, PRI and the EU Business & Biodiversity Platform brings together a group of diverse financial institutions to present real-world examples of investment vehicles, funds and financial products that work towards generating positive outcomes for nature.
27 October | 14:00–15:30 (UTC+04:00) | Insuring ASEAN’s natural infrastructure: nature in how the region assesses, reduces and finances disaster risk
Location: ASEAN Pavilion
UNEP FI is speaking at this session looking at how insurance can help ASEAN Member States address nature loss. It draws on live regional examples, including parametric coral reef insurance for Indonesia’s Gili Matra islands and cover for 88 marine protected areas in the Philippines, to explore how insurance can evidence nature-related risk, unlock finance for nature, and help mainstream it across ASEAN’s nature-dependent sectors, while identifying the conditions needed to scale these solutions.
Speakers include Christovel Rotinsulu (Coral Triangle Initiative), Aurelie Fallon Saint-Lo (Axa Group), William Butler (GaiaSicura), Verena Kraus (UNEP FI), and Saurabh Sharma (UNDP) as moderator.
October 27 | 15:15–16:15 (UTC+04:00) | From ecosystem intelligence to action: using ecosystem data to identify risk and prioritize resilience investments in insurance and banking
Location: Data to Action Pavilion, Blue Zone
This session will explore how data on the location and extent of ecosystems can be integrated into climate risk modelling to drive better decision-making across banking, insurance and investment portfolios. Bringing together leaders from finance, data platforms and nature science, the discussion, with UNEP FI’s participation, will examine how improved ecosystem information can strengthen physical risk assessments, reveal the value of ecosystem services across different ecosystems, and help identify and prioritize investments in nature-based solutions.
28 October | 16:30–18:00 (UTC+04:00) | Insurance and risk finance for nature: unlocking investment for GBF implementation
Location: GEF Pavilion, Blue Zone
Investments in conservation, restoration and nature-positive economic activity face multiple risks, including physical shocks, uncertain revenues and performance, and risks borne by communities and businesses whose livelihoods depend on nature. This session, co-hosted by UNEP FI, brings together biodiversity funds, development finance institutions, governments and the insurance sector to examine how better risk management can strengthen biodiversity finance, and where insurance, guarantees and other risk-sharing mechanisms can add value.
Speakers include Taku Kato (Sompo Japan Insurance Inc.), Aurelie Fallon Saint-Lo (Axa Group), Gregory Watson (Inter-American Development Bank), Jeromine Bertrand (Department of environment, food, and rural affairs, government of the United Kingdom), Verena Kraus (UNEP FI), with Saurabh Sharma (UNDP) as a moderator.
Details on more events and sessions will be added here. Please check back soon.
Related resources
- Four finance shifts needed on the road to COP17
- On the road to COP17: A conversation with Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
- High-level roadmap: Aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
- From Cali to Yerevan: Is the Financial System on Track?
- From Kunming-Montreal to Cali: Is the Financial System on Track?
- COP16: A Historic People’s COP Sets the Stage for Nature-Positive Action
FAQs
UNEP FI is able to support members in attaining organizational accreditation and individual delegate badges for attending COP17. If you are a UNEP FI member and would like support, please complete this short form by 15 September. Please note that UNEP FI cannot guarantee accreditation or delegate badges will be approved and is unable to provide support to non-members. Please do not book flights or make arrangements for attending COP17 until accreditation and delegate badges have been officially received.
UNEP FI’s COP17 engagement will focus on showcasing progress on biodiversity finance since the adoption of the GBF, identifying the remaining gaps and challenges to aligning financial flows with the framework, and promoting innovative financing mechanisms that can help scale investment in nature.
UNEP FI members can stay informed through the UNEP FI newsletter, by following UNEP FI on LinkedIn, and by visiting this dedicated COP17 page regularly for the latest updates, announcements and event information. If your institution will be attending COP17, please complete this short form to be added to a dedicated mailing list.
- The first global review of collective progress towards the GBF including an assessment of implementation of the Resource Mobilization Strategy adopted at the resumed COP16 in Rome in 2025.
- Operationalization of the UN Cali Fund moving the benefit-sharing mechanism for digital sequence information from design into implementation.
- A GBF Fund pledging event aimed at expanding the Fund’s contributor base beyond sovereign donors and mobilizing additional resources for biodiversity action. If you are interested in this fund, please contact Jessica Smith.
- National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) implementation and finance, including how national plans can be translated into investable pipelines suitable for private finance uptake.
More about CBD COP17
The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the Convention’s principal decision-making body, bringing together governments and stakeholders to advance global action on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
COP17 will focus on assessing progress in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and accelerating action towards its goals and targets. Countries are expected to report on efforts to align their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) with the framework, while participants from governments, the private sector, financial institutions, civil society and international organizations will discuss approaches to mobilizing resources, strengthening implementation, building capacity and supporting nature-positive development. Key topics are expected to include resource mobilization, finance, capacity-building, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.