In December 2022, Canada hosted the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal. Already two years behind schedule, COP15 landed a historic agreement to protect nature —the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). During the conference, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change committed to work with rights holders and stakeholders to develop a whole-of-government national biodiversity strategy and accountability act towards Canada’s biodiversity targets, including protecting at least 30% of land and ocean by 2030. The Minister also signaled his intention to review subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity.
To meet the ambitions of the KMGBF, countries committed to develop coherent national biodiversity strategies and action plans, as well as associated biodiversity finance plans. Canada’s biodiversity finance plan should detail financing needs for reaching Canada’s KMGBF targets, and the mechanisms by which the Government of Canada can catalyze new investments to achieve these targets (e.g., federal budgets and taxes, blended finance, impact funds, biodiversity bonds, payments for ecosystem services and offset mechanisms). Canada’s biodiversity finance plan should be underpinned by a robust mitigation hierarchy94 to, first, avoid and minimize impacts to natural habitats and, second, implement biodiversity offsets to, at a minimum, achieve no net biodiversity loss and where possible, net biodiversity gain. The Green Budget Coalition nature recommendations below outline some of the key elements that should be reflected in a 2030 Biodiversity Strategy Financing Plan and are detailed in the categories Protect, Restore, Manage, and Mainstream and Mobilize.