Eight governments have pledged $163 million to strengthen a fund created to "halt and reverse" nature loss by 2030, it was announced Monday at the COP16 biodiversity summit being held in Colombia.Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the Canadian province of Quebec have announced contributions to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), according to a statement from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The new pledges bring to about $400 million the total amount so far promised to the fund.
The GBFF was set up under an agreement reached in 2022 that gave birth to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, with 23 targets to save nature from human destruction.
"The GBFF now has 12 contributors including Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, and Spain," said the statement. Quebec is the first sub-national government to contribute.
The framework committed countries to mobilizing at least $200 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity, including $20 billion per year by 2025 from rich nations to help developing ones. The GBFF is one part of this funding.
Of the $20 billion goal, $15 billion was reached by 2022, according to the OECD group of developed countries.
COP16 president Susana Muhamad, Colombia's environment minister, told AFP Monday that the GBFF "needs more money."
