Biodiversity is the order of the day with calls for a new global fund that gives access to financing and benefit sharing.
This statement by Egypt’s Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Yasmine Fouad came during an event on Sunday on the ENACT initiative partnership through Nature-based Solutions (NbS).
Biodiversity support is a long-term process, yet it is now an urgent necessity, the minister said.
“The biodiversity fund should provide independent and equal funding and should have a governing structure,” the minister added, noting that the fund should also give developed and developing countries the opportunity to be part of the decision-making processes.
“The fund will serve as a transitional entity until 2025, as negotiations are still on over the creation of an integrated fund that honours pledges and narrows the biodiversity financing gap,” Fouad told the event on the sidelines the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention COP15 Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada.
COP15 wrapped up on Sunday.
The ENACT initiative, the most important outcome of Biodiversity Day during the UN COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh last month, will coordinate global efforts to address climate change, land and ecosystem degradation, and bio-diversity loss through NbS.
Egypt launched the initiative in co-operation with Bangladesh, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Malawi and Bangladesh.
Fouad, who hailed Germany for allocating $1.5 billion annually to nature-based solutions, called on global partners in the ENACT initiative to meet in Egypt in the first quarter of 2023 to review the results of the initiative.
