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, 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. 

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. A 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 enhance 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.

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 is 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. 

Two for One: Are the climate impacts of trade a good proxy for biodiversity impacts?
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 (80x25). 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.

 

Nature4Climate and our partners Metabolic have updated and expanded the database for the NbS Policy Tracker, launched in 2021 at COP26. The NbS Policy Tracker is the world’s largest global database of public policies that facilitate the delivery of crucial NbS solutions. This includes legislation (laws or constitutions), subsidies, and strategies and plans with budgets. In addition to these policies, the database now also includes NbS in international commitments, such as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).

The nature-based policies identified—both last year and this year—will be available on the new N4C website and further integrated into N4C’s upcoming Naturebase platform.