COP 27 is finally here and in addition to an exciting events schedule and news coming out of the Nature Zone and Nature’s Newsroom, we are keeping our eyes and ears out for anything nature related inside the Blue Zone. Our Daily Nature Brief at COP27 will be coming out every morning from 7-18 November with an inside scoop into the most important climate conference of the year. Don’t forget to subscribe to receive the brief directly in your email.
Welcome to Finance Day
Responses to the World Leaders Summit have been somewhat muted, with few concrete examples of delivery on key climate promises. However, other announcements are coming in thick and fast (see below).
With heads of state leaving Sharm, attention in the Red Zone will now turn to the negotiations. Outside of the negotiating rooms, the focus today is on finance: how can financial flows be aligned with net zero and nature positive? And even more broadly, the eyes of many are glued to the results of the US midterms. We will be looking into what all this means for the Nature Positive agenda over the course of the week.
Day 2 Round Up – Mitigation
- Africa Carbon Markets Initiative. Led by a thirteen-member steering committee of African leaders, CEOs, and carbon credit experts, the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) was launched with the aim of dramatically expanding Africa’s participation in voluntary carbon markets. ACMI announced the goal for the continent to reach 300 million credits annually by 2030. This level of production would unlock 6 billion in income and support 30 million jobs. By 2050, ACMI is targeting over 1.5 billion credits produced annually in Africa, leveraging over $120 billion and supporting over 110 million jobs.
- US NBS Roadmap. The Biden-Harris Administration released the Nature-Based Solutions Roadmap, an outline of strategic recommendations to put America on a path that will unlock the full potential of nature-based solutions to address climate change, nature loss, and inequity. The Administration also announced new interagency commitments aligned with the roadmap including: agency actions to ensure over $25 billion in infrastructure and climate funding can support nature-based solutions; a new guide for bringing the power of nature to maximize the value and resilience of military bases; and a new technical working group to better account for nature-based options in benefit-cost analysis.
- Agriculture Sector Roadmap. The Agriculture Sector Roadmap to 1.5°C was launched yesterday. It was developed by 14 of the world’s largest agricultural commodity trading and processing companies to reduce emissions from land use change by halting deforestation linked to supply chains. The roadmap represents a shared, sector-wide plan for addressing deforestation in supply chains, and also for accelerating collaboration with others to achieve that goal. It is the outcome of a year’s joint work between the signatories, who manage large global trade volumes in key agricultural commodities – including more than half of both Brazilian soy exports and global palm oil trade. The process was facilitated by the Tropical Forest Alliance, with support from WBCSD.
- Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda. The Egyptian Presidency launched a global plan to unite governments and non-state actors behind a set of goals to improve the resiliency of four billion people living in the most climate-vulnerable communities around the world.
- $2 trillion a year needed for climate action. An UN-backed report commissioned by Egypt and the UK finds that developing countries will need $1 trillion a year in external finance for climate action and will need to match that amount with their own funds.
- Forest Partnerships. The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on behalf of the EU, signed five Memoranda of Understanding for Forest Partnerships with Guyana, Mongolia, the Republic of Congo, Uganda and Zambia. Forest Partnerships encompass the EU’s holistic cooperation framework for joint work on forests, aimed at reversing deforestation in supported countries and consequently enhancing climate and biodiversity protection.
- $1.5 Billion for Smallholder Farmers. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $1.4 billion to help smallholder farmers cope with the impacts of climate change, part of efforts at global climate talks in Egypt to scale up supply of so-called adaptation finance. This comes as organisations representing more than 350 million family farmers and producers published an open letter to world leaders today, warning that global food security is at risk unless governments boost adaptation finance for small-scale production and promote a shift to more diverse, low-input agriculture.
- ADB Water and Sanitation Resilience. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and partners announced the ambition to mobilise more than $200 million from 2021 to 2025 to support to build water and sanitation resilience and security in Asia and the Pacific. The Government of the Netherlands is supporting the initiative with a $20 million contribution to the newly established Water Resilience Trust Fund and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is providing $10 million to the Sanitation Financing Partnership Trust Fund under the initiative.
- Global Fund for Coral Reefs. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed to scaling resilience action in partnership with the GFCR. USAID’s contribution of up to $15 million USD will accelerate blended finance programming to support the resilience of Egyptian Red Sea communities and their reef ecosystems.
- Deep sea mining. Yesterday, French President Emmanuel Macron became the first head of state to call for a complete ban on deep-sea mining, an activity that would extract industrial quantities of minerals from the seabed in international waters in the near future.
- Nature Positive Cooking. The Kitchen Connection Alliance, in close cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, launched an international cookbook to support the way that we eat for ourselves and for the planet. Celebrity chefs, organic farmers, indigenous cooks, and food activists share their favorite entrées and side dishes that are not only healthy and delicious but also sustainable.
- Agriculture Sector Roadmap. The Agriculture Sector Roadmap to 1.5°C was launched yesterday. It was developed by 14 of the world’s largest agricultural commodity trading and processing companies to reduce emissions from land use change by halting deforestation linked to supply chains. Without reducing emissions from land use – which includes deforestation and the conversion of ecosystems – we will not reach our climate goal of holding the global temperature rise to 1.5°C. The roadmap represents a shared, sector-wide plan for addressing deforestation in supply chains, and also for accelerating collaboration with others to achieve that goal. It is the outcome of a year’s joint work between the signatories, who manage large global trade volumes in key agricultural commodities – including more than half of both Brazilian soy exports and global palm oil trade. The process was facilitated by the Tropical Forest Alliance, with support from WBCSD.
Net-Zero Report
The High-level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities, led by Catherine McKenna, released its report on the net-zero commitments of businesses, financial institutions, cities and regions. Dubbed by many as the “greenwashing” report, it sets out five principles that should guide the setting and achievement of net zero targets. “Plans must be ambitious, have integrity and transparency, be credible and fair.”
The report focuses on the urgent, deep and wide-ranging emissions reductions that must be taken by any company before using carbon credits to support beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM). But it also recognises that high-integrity BVCM, including investments in nature, used in a high-integrity way can deliver material progress towards global climate, nature and sustainable development goals. The attention on the people and sectors most in need of support is vital, and by following this guidance and ensuring investment into high-quality nature-based solutions, it is possible to unlock real action on deforestation and nature loss, and real benefits going to real people.
We have been collecting responses to the report, which we will share in tomorrow’s newsletter.
“The OPEC of Rainforests”
We have been collecting reactions to reports that Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are in strategic talks to align conservation efforts. Generally, the response has been that cooperation among these countries, home to 52% of the world’s tropical forests is a welcome development as forest-friendly leadership resumes power in Brazil. In the words of one negotiator well briefed on the matter: “As the international climate agenda is now firmly focussed on implementation rather than negotiation, the experience of success in reducing deforestation in Brazil (pre-Bolsonaro), and more recently in Indonesia, is much needed to bolster political will in favour of forest conservation in the DRC.”
Another asked, “How can this ‘OPEC of rainforests’ work as a bloc in this phase of action? The newly launched Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership may provide the appropriate high-level political ‘coalition of the willing’ with which to negotiate country-specific packages of support that will enable these countries to achieve their ambitions to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 while enabling sustainable economic development.”
REPORTS
Paper by UKRI GCRF and Chatham House discusses how we can link together local and national level measures on sustainable trade for agricultural commodities, such as soy, with international policy and private sector initiatives working towards the same goal.Deforestation in the Amazon is accelerating the point of no return
WWF’s Living Amazon Report, published yesterday, argues that threats to the integrity of the Amazon must be stopped through urgent measures to protect 80% of the rainforest by 2025 (80×25). Drawing on the latest available research, the report shows that without urgent action, the rainforest could reach a point of no return, directly affecting the livelihoods of the 47 million people living in the Amazon, 511 indigenous peoples groups, 10% of the planet’s biodiversity, and aggravating the global climate and biodiversity crises.An Introduction to REDD+ Standards
The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, and the U.S. Government have released an introduction to REDD+ standards to simplify the understanding of various standards, funding sources, and markets for REDD+, and to provide a centralized site for accessing International REDD+ Standards.
New insights on Nature-based Solutions: Scaling up strategies for Net Zero, Nature Positive and addressing Inequality
WBCSD published a new report presenting findings and recommendations for NbS strategies for Net Zero, Nature Positive and addressing Inequality, based on the role that NCS can play for the climate.
NBS IN THE NEWS
A climate change report card for the world
The Washington Post, Sarah Kaplan, 7 November
COP27: Indonesia considering joining newly-launched FCLP
FORESTHINTS.NEWS, 8 November
COP27: Major food firms detail plans to eliminate deforestation by 2025
Reuters, Jake Spring and Simon Jessop, 7 November
Small share of land rights pledge went to Indigenous groups: Progress report
Mongabay, John Cannon, 7 November
Can seaweed cultivation help fix the climate crisis? [Commentary]
Mongabay, Dr. David Koweek, Dr. Jim Barry, 7 November
Indigenous lands hold the world’s healthiest forests – but only when their rights are protected
Mongabay, Latoya Abulu and Laurel Sutherland, 7 November
If the US aspires to climate leadership, it must break its addiction to the products driving forest destruction [Commentary]
Mongabay, Sam Lawson, 7 November
Oil Palm and Tropical Peat – Company Commitments and Reporting in 2021
ZSL SPOTT, 8 November
Shady contracts, backdoor deals spur illegal gold mining in Bolivian Amazon
Mongabay, Maxwell Radwin, 8 November
More Governments Are Turning Against the Rush to Mine the Deep Sea
Bloomberg, Todd Woody, 7 November
Debt-for-Nature Swaps Gain Traction Among Developing Countries
Bloomberg, Natasha White, 7 November
Drought looms over midterm elections in the arid West
Grist, Jake Bittle, 8 November
Ocean-Eaten Islands, Fire-Scarred Forests: Our Changing World in Pictures
The New York Times, 8 November
To detox from Bolsonaro, fight like a forest
SUMAÚMA, Eliane Brum, 7 November
TIR Europe targets $250m for sustainable timber fund
Agri Investor, Chris Janiec, 7 November
Government failing to protect US forests most critical to fighting climate change, activists say
The Hill, Saul Elbein, 8 November
After the catastrophe, the very difficult.
SUMAÚMA, Eliane Brum, 8 November
MAAP #168: Amazon Fire Season 2022
Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project, 3 November
How Belize Cut Its Debt by Fighting Global Warming
The New York Times, Anatoly Kurmanaev, 7 November
COP27 puts two visions of Brazil side by side
Capital Reset, Sérgio Teixeira Jr., 8 November
As Glasgow forest pledge turns to action, most signatories drop out
Climate Home News, Joe Lo, 7 November
African nations can’t ‘adapt’ to the climate crisis. Here’s what rich countries must do [Commentary]
The Guardian, Vanessa Nakate, 8 November
Amazon destruction woes overshadow Brazil’s farming advances
Financial Times, Michael Stott, 7 November
Climate-resistant coffee trees could save Mozambique rainforest
Reuters, Sisipho Skweyiya and Emidio Jozine, 8 November
Regenerative agriculture seen as answer to averting Africa’s growing food crisis
Reuters, Mark Hillsdon, 7 November
“Greenwashing can only be overcome if we can focus on transparency – and if we can change our focus so that carbon isn’t the only reason we’re talking about biodiversity.”
Tom Crowther, professor of ecology at ETH Zurich and co-chair of the advisory board for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, sharing his thoughts at the Nature Zone Pavilion