Frank Elderson: Taking action for nature – investing in economic resilience and prosperity

It is a pleasure to open the Finance and Biodiversity Day at COP17. We have talked about the need for action for long enough. Now we need to act. Four years ago, the international community adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, setting out a pathway to living in harmony with nature by 2050. The destination is set. The path is clear. But progress has remained limited. And nature has not stood still. It has continued to deteriorate. So we need to accelerate. Tangible progress requires a shift from targets to implementation, from awareness to engagement, from ambition to investment. COP17 must help us accelerate the journey. And finance has a central role to play.