This report combines information, awareness and guidance for financial institutions who wish to address their exposure to global biodiversity. It highlights that governments and the private sector should scale up their biodiversity finance and to reduce the finance flows that harm biodiversity.

Governments spend approximately US$500 billion per year in support that is potentially harmful to biodiversity, which is five to six times more than total spending for biodiversity. Fossil fuel support is one of the largest flows of public finance that contributes to harming biodiversity. The support and use of fossil fuels contributes to climate change which is a direct cause of global biodiversity loss. Similarly, government support of agriculture can also be detrimental to biodiversity as it encourages intensification of production which utilises a significant number of pesticides and fertilisers.

The harm of biodiversity can also be seen through the support of sectors such as fisheries and mining. Countries of the OECD contribute support of companies in fisheries which is directed at lowering costs of inputs and fuel. This support has shown to redirect policies that incentivise intensive fishing and move towards activities that improve the sustainability of fishing operations. Overall, this offers significant benefits for the environment and biodiversity.

Further, the report identifies an overview of recommendations that better assess and track for biodiversity. It highlights that adopting a common approach and international standards to measure public biodiversity expenditure would improve the comparability of biodiversity expenditure data across countries. Efforts are also underway which assess whether government budgets are consistent with biodiversity objectives, which accounts for finance flows that harm biodiversity.

The report has identified key recommendations to improve the assessment, tracking and reporting of biodiversity finance flows:

• Improve the consistency and transparency of the data reported to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by adapting the financial reporting framework to request further granularity.
• Develop ad agree on an internationally harmonised approach for assessing and monitoring public biodiversity finance. This can help in building on existing frameworks, as well as classification systems.
• Establish a framework which assists in assessing and tracking private finance for biodiversity.
• To increase at a national level, the efforts that identify, assess, and track public expenditure that can be harmful to biodiversity. This can include subsidies which encourage the harm of biodiversity.

Create a guidance approach and adopt policies which can help to evaluate the efficiency of biodiversity finance flows, as well as related policy instruments.