Press conference: Billionaires versus Biodiversity: Is the CBD the New Twitter?

15 Dec 2022
COP15, Montreal

15 November at 16:00 Montreal — As high-level delegates arrive in Montreal for negotiations on the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), join experts from the CBD Alliance, the coalition of critical NGOs in the Convention, who will react on the biodiversity funding pledge that the Bezos Earth Fund is expected to announce, and present an overview and status update on negotiations on resource mobilization and the proposed Global Biodiversity Fund.

Why is resource mobilization so important and what are the chief concerns of scientists, activists, and Indigenous communities? Why is there a lot of criticism of the Bezos pledge? What is the current status of negotiations?

The current draft of the GBF is cause for alarm as it opens the door to “all sources of finance” including massive amounts of greenwashing funds by corporations and billionaires that have made their money through destroying biodiversity and fueling climate change. Any agreement that permits funding from carbon or biodiversity offsets and funding from harmful industries poses a huge threat. It basically means that conserving 30% of the planet would be financed through destroying 70%, to the detriment of both the Indigenous women and men who currently live in and depend on the 30% for their livelihoods, and the rest of humanity living in the 70%.

How much funding is really needed to implement the GBF and what will the sources of that funding be? What are the roles of international finance and overseas development assistance versus private finance? What is the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and why is it a threat rather than a savior to biodiversity? What is the view of NGOs on the new Global Biodiversity Fund that has been proposed?

Hear from the experts on the current status of negotiations and why ending subsidies to harmful industries and investments and ensuring finance flows do not come from activities that are destroying nature is the only way forward for our planet.

 

Speakers:

Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition, Netherlands (introductory remarks, tourism as a source of finance for biodiversity)

Jim Thomas, ETCGroup, Canada (Bezos, philanthrocapitalism)

Panganga Pungowiyi, Indigenous Environmental Network, US (billionaires and geoengineering)

Lim Li Ching, Third World Network, Malaysia (the big picture, concerns from developing countries and debt and other structural financial obstacles to biodiversity conservation)

Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International, Costa Rica (the risks of carbon and biodiversity offsets as financial resources for biodiversity conservation)

Shona Hawkes, Rainforest Action Network, Australia (TNFD as a false solution)

 

Online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da6WMRSOPqI&list=PLjpSs1uejVAmU2jcmQjIukxjyo40Asbyb&index=2

 

Contact: Ismail Wolff, ismail.wolff@globalforestcoalition.org + 33 7 88 85 28 59