Canada to ensure that more than $1B of its climate finance addresses the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss

Glasgow: Climate change and biodiversity loss are intrinsically connected, which is why a coordinated approach to tackle them both is essential. Nature-based solutions, such as conserving carbon-rich natural areas and restoring wetlands, can help countries tackle both these challenges.
To address these interconnected crises, Canada will allocate at least 20 percent of its $5.3 billion climate finance commitment to nature-based climate solutions with biodiversity co‑benefits in developing countries over the next five years. This represents more than CA$1 billion. Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced at COP26 that Canada would provide $15 million in support for the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs. This funding will help developing countries build domestic capacity to take climate action, build resilience, and advance adaptation efforts while also increasing biodiversity.
As part of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and the Global Ocean Alliance, Canada is leading the way to build support for an international target to protect 30 percent of our lands and oceans by 2030.

Canada’s climate finance commitments have already helped countries take nature-based action through initiatives such as the Pacific Initiative for Biodiversity, Climate Change and Resilience (Kiwa Initiative). This initiative is helping to make Pacific island ecosystems, economies and communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Canada has been clear that we cannot solve the climate crisis without nature, nor solve the nature crisis without stabilizing the climate. Canada is championing the development of an ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework with clear targets and actions as a way of focusing the world’s collective efforts to stem the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of nature. Canada will continue its work with international partners towards a new Global Biodiversity Framework to be finalized at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 next spring in Kunming, China.