Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development sets out policy actions to scale public and private biodiversity finance

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has published a report assessing instruments for mobilising and aligning public and private finance with biodiversity objectives. It finds that financial tools such as payments for ecosystem services, nature markets, bonds, equity, insurance and blended finance cannot deliver biodiversity outcomes at scale without coherent regulation, credible revenue models, robust institutions and investment-ready projects. Redirecting environmentally harmful financial flows is at least as important as raising new capital, while private finance should complement rather than replace public and philanthropic funding for activities that offer limited or uncertain commercial returns. The OECD recommends reforming harmful subsidies and strengthening biodiversity-positive taxes and incentives, creating well-governed markets and revenue streams, and using concessional finance and risk-sharing instruments where public additionality is clear. Governments and public institutions should also improve biodiversity targets, data and metrics, strengthen disclosure and verification to reduce greenwashing, align public budgets and development finance with biodiversity goals, and support project preparation and aggregation. These measures are intended to help close a financing shortfall estimated at hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars annually and support the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework target of mobilising at least USD 200 billion a year from all sources.