MONTREAL, Canada (CMC) — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says it is committed to increasing its nature-positive finance and will continue its process to develop a green finance target.

As a result, the Washington-based financial institution said it will also continue leading work with other multilateral development banks (MDBs) to develop a commonly agreed definition of nature-positive finance and a tracking methodology for the second quarter of 2023.

The IDB announced its progress during the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) now taking place here. A high-level IDB delegation is attending the conference which ends on Monday next week to showcase its biodiversity and natural capital work as the leading MDB to advance this agenda in the region.

The IDB said a nature-positive economy can unlock US$10 trillion in business opportunities by transforming the food, infrastructure, and energy sectors, which are responsible for almost 80 per cent of nature loss.

“At the IDB, we understand that supporting nature-positive investments is critical for the economies and people of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the global climate target of net-zero emissions by 2050,” said Juan Pablo Bonilla, the manager of the IDB’s climate change and sustainable development sector.

The IDB said it is working to implement the IDB-led MDB Joint Statement on Nature, People, and Planet from COP26 and that from 2015 to 2020, it invested over US$800 million in 28 projects with nature-based solutions components.

These projects leveraged an additional US$437 million in financing from partners, amounting to nearly US$1.25 billion in total project financing.

As part of an alignment with the UN’s Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the IDB has developed an action plan for mainstreaming natural capital and biodiversity across the institution for approval in early 2023, following the finalisation of the GBF.

The bank said it will be the first MDB with a dedicated natural capital and biodiversity mainstreaming strategy. This builds upon existing work to integrate biodiversity into the country planning processes, now underway in 10 countries.

In addition, through concessional resources, the bank supports countries in mainstreaming biodiversity across their governments, valuing natural capital, and integrating nature into planning processes. The IDB will accelerate this work to support the region in implementing the GBF and is initiating a process to review the portfolio’s exposure to biodiversity loss.

The bank approved a US$100-million debt-for-nature swap project in Barbados that channels 100 per cent of savings to conservation and marks a significant milestone for the IDB in helping its member countries to leverage innovative financial solutions to address biodiversity and climate change. The IDB was the first MDB to use such instruments and has several similar transactions in the pipeline.

Through the Natural Capital Lab (NCL), the IDB continues to work with partners such as France and the United Kingdom to deploy funds for ecosystem conservation, other forms of conservation, and sustainable use.

The NCL has secured euro 24 million (one euro=US$1.29 cents) from France plus GBP13 million (one GBP=US$1.24 cents) to finance strategic and innovative operations that have a positive impact on the natural capital of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The IDB said through the Amazon Initiative, it is supporting Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Suriname, incorporating regenerative activities in the Amazon Basin and that it continues to support innovative finance approaches with IDB Invest, such as sustainability bonds, and with IDB Lab, such as early-stage finance, new natural asset classes, tokenisation of natural assets, biodiversity habitat banks, biodiversity credits, and digital platforms.