About GLF Climate 2021
Hosted digitally and in Glasgow alongside COP26, the GLF Climate 2021 hybrid conference made a unanimous call for ambitious, concrete action to stop the climate crisis.
Attended by 4,386 digital participants from 145 countries, along with 481 in-person participants at the University of Glasgow, the event featured 400 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth, and government leaders.
Across 67 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, and climate talks, GLF Climate: Forests, Food, Finance – Frontiers of Change explored the potential of three key climate solutions: forest restoration, resilient food systems, and sustainable finance. Messages spread on social media rallied 41.34 million people around concrete ways to address the climate emergency as quickly as possible.
Leveraging the power of nature-based solutions
Less than 2% of all climate finance flows are currently channeled to small-scale farmers. As a solution, Nature-based solutions (NbS) have the potential to reconcile social, economic, and environmental interests. If financed at the level required, they can generate positive impacts for rural populations, including green jobs, long-term provision of ecosystem services, and climate change adaptation and mitigation benefits.
NbS can also generate revenue, which in turn can attract investment from private finance. For example, restoring natural ecosystems upstream of hydropower plants can improve water flows, help energy companies generate more power and enable upstream communities to potentially start ecotourism businesses or grow more sustainable agricultural products.
Despite their inherent value, nature-based resources are not properly valued by current economic systems. This results in a financing gap. The biodiversity financing gap for the next decade will be US$711 billion per year. Investment in NbS will involve the public and private sectors, with carbon credits playing a significant role. Investment in NbS ought to at least triple in real terms by 2030 and increase four-fold by 2050 if the world is to meet its climate change, biodiversity, and land degradation targets.
This plenary addresses possible ways of solving the funding gap for local communities and explore good practices for greening finance and financing green with potential for local impacts at scale. Reflecting on the key messages and proposals discussed during the day, the plenary will lay out concrete actions to be taken by various stakeholders – including the private sector – in order to increase sustainable finance flows for NbS. The session will also highlight lessons learned and good practices on how sustainable value chains and financing mechanisms can improve financing for NbS and benefit-sharing.
