SINGAPORE - When grey whales hunt, they scrape the ocean floor with their jaws, filtering out tiny crustaceans from the sediment with their baleen. In the process, they stir up a bounty of nutrients, unleashing resources long buried in the seafloor for other creatures.
In April, Singapore investment company Temasek convened the Ecosperity Week sustainability conference where “nature positivity” – a buzzword that encapsulates the goal to halt and reverse nature loss – was discussed by the bankers and investors in the room. Closing the gap requires the repurposing of US$500 billion per year in harmful subsidies, such as those that incentivise the overharvesting of the ocean, for instance, and mobilising the remaining US$200 billion from all sources – including the private sector.
Given the flurry of net-zero targets made by governments and corporations around the world, the business case for climate-friendly investments like renewable energy plants or energy efficient technology is apparent. Moreover, some of the losses wrought by climate impacts – infrastructure damage, loss of lives and livelihoods – are quantifiable.
There is a silver lining in that there has been a growing awareness of the links between nature’s decline and climate change. The following year, nature-based solutions were referenced for the first time in the COP27 decision text. At COP28 in 2023, there were also discussions on other financing schemes to protect nature, such as debt-for-nature swaps in which sovereign debt of a developing country is cut in exchange for nature conservation measures.
Revenue from carbon credits can fund the protection and restoration of forests and mangroves. In a sign of how there is money to be made in this space, Temasek in 2022 launched GenZero, an investment platform company that counts among its investment focus areas nature-based solutions that protect and restore natural ecosystems.
Individual species like the critically endangered black rhinoceros are also benefiting from novel financing products such as the rhino bond – the world’s first wildlife conservation debt instrument issued by the World Bank.