Over 100 experts oppose ‘Nature Positive Fund’ in open letter to UNx before COP15

Source: The post is based on the article “Over 100 experts oppose ‘Nature Positive Fund’ in open letter to UNx before COP15” published in Down To Earth on 9th December 2022

What is the News?

Over 100 experts want the United Nations, World Economic Forum, European Commission and WWF to reject the ‘Nature Positive Fund’ at the 15th COP to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal, Canada.

What is Nature Positive?

Nature positive’ means enhancing the resilience of our planet and societies to halt and reverse nature loss.

The idea is that there should be more nature in 2030 than in 2020.

The ‘nature-positive’ goal could be the equivalent of the 1.5 degrees Celcius pledge, providing a sense of direction for the movement: where emissions cuts are needed to curb rising temperatures, nature protection is needed to boost biodiversity.

What is a Nature Positive Fund?

At the 15th COP to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), countries are planning to discuss setting up a Nature Positive Fund to promote a positive nature agenda.

However, experts have called for the rejection of this fund as it promotes the financialization of nature’s destruction via 1) Monetary valuation of ecosystems, 2) Biodiversity offsetting and 3) Diverting the conversation away from the need to curb biodiversity destruction and towards ‘sustainable’ finance regulation.