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The European Investment Bank (EIB) and other multilateral development banks (MDBs), last month, published common principles for identifying and tracking nature-positive finance. The announcement was made on nature day of the United Nations COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  

According to United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI), nature-positive finance aims to mobilise financial institutions to engage positively with nature.

The new common principles aim to mainstream nature in MDB operations and investments in a systematic manner. This is one of the key deliverables from the COP26 Joint MDB Statement on Nature, People and Planet, in which MDBs collectively committed to step up efforts for the protection, restoration, and sustainable use of nature in support of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Nature plays a critical role in providing resources and services that underpin the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and are essential to solving development challenges such as health, jobs and livelihoods, inequality, climate change, food security and fragility, EIB said in a statement.

The common principles will help guide the development and implementation of MDBs’ respective frameworks and internal methodologies for tracking nature-positive finance as they support countries and the private sector in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in a systematic manner. The common principles will also facilitate comparability across MDBs in their respective screening and tracking processes.