Sustainable Finance as solutions to addressing Biodiversity Loss-insights from a 2023 All Island Research Initiative

The recent Irish Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, together with the EU’s Nature Restoration Law, has brought much needed attention to the biodiversity crisis that society faces. This crisis affects all facets of life, and is deemed a threat to financial stability. Protection of the environment and natural ecosystems are key objectives of sustainable finance which itself has emerged in recent years as a potentially transformative force to tackle these issues. The purpose of this research is to explore how solutions from sustainable finance could help to preserve natural ecosystems and halt, or at least slow, biodiversity loss. A series of special themed workshops were held in Belfast, Dublin and Waterford with keynote speakers drawn from academia, financial services and policy across the island and from the UK. Our key findings illustrate the increasing awareness of biodiversity loss and its interaction with climate change but also the challenges to addressing it that are posed by its multifaceted and interdisciplinary nature. The business case for nature’s positive actions and targets set at COP15 at Montreal were deemed to reinforce the need for large-scale financial instruments offering additionality to attract investors. Case studies were presented which shed light on some of the effective best practice measures helping to harness biodiversity loss. The first of these illustrated the merits of using a Biodiversity Monitor by an international bank in financing regenerative agriculture; the second capturing the establishment of the first nature-based private sector funding instrument by an Irish bank leading to the planting of native woodlands aimed at providing recreational amenities for local communities while sequestering and storing carbon and creating biodiverse new habitats. Other highlights documented the need for specialist expertise, the co-creation of solutions involving farmers, regular communication and trust building among stakeholders as crucial for addressing biodiversity loss.