LocationsOpening Remarks by Ms Beate Trankmann at the Green Finance – Building a Biodiversity Finance System and Mobilizing Resources
July 4, 2025
UNDP Resident Representative in China, Beate Trankmann, delivered opening remarks at sub-forum on Green Finance – Building a Biodiversity Finance System and Mobilizing Resources in Guiyang, China.
尊敬的吴强副省长 (Mr. Wuqiang, Executive Vice Governor)
尊敬的金力校长 (Mr. JIN Li, President of Fudan University)
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen- good afternoon.
欢迎各位参加”绿色金融：生物多样性金融体系构建和资源调动” 主题论坛.
Finding the finance to save our natural world has never been more urgent.
We face a planetary emergency, as both nature losses, and climate change, accelerate. This threatens 2.7 billion people in tropical countries, who depend directly on biodiversity for food and livelihoods. Meanwhile, inequality, conflict, and health crises are further exacerbating food and water scarcity.
Against these challenges, a key roadmap to safeguarding our planet and coexisting with nature is the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – adopted in 2022, under China's presidency.
But without the necessary finance, we cannot unlock its potential. An estimated 824 billion dollars is needed annually to protect biodiversity globally. But only around 143 billion dollars is being spent each year. And mainly from public finances, which are currently constrained, particularly in debt-laden developing countries.
Yet, the finance to overcome this shortfall does exist. Reallocating just 1% of global wealth could close the entire financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals in developing economies.
As well as being vital for our survival, sustainable finance makes economic sense. A nature-positive economy could create over $10 trillion in business value each year, and nearly 400 million jobs by 2030. Every dollar invested in restoring ecosystems, can return up to 30 dollars in economic benefits.
Nature investments also open up fast-growing sectors, reflect positively in environmental disclosures and branding – with the potential to generate green premiums for investors - and enable a stable operating environment. This reduces climate insurance risks in future, given nature also helps to mitigate climate change.
UNDP China works with governments and businesses to achieve this, by aligning their financial resources with nature. And there’s no better example than right here, in Guizhou.
In Guiyang, or Forest City, UNDP is helping the National Forestry and Grassland Administration to combat Land degradation through our UNDP-GEF project. Our Libo County demonstration site is restoring natural forests, and exploring long-term conservation finance models.
Yet efforts like these also reveal a deeper challenge: the way economic systems fail to value nature’s assets and services. We manage what we measure. So, because ecosystem services are ignored by balance sheets, they are tragically underestimated.
This has profound consequences.
Policymakers may enable public spending that unintentionally harms ecosystems. While investors may disregard nature-positive projects as too risky, or not commercially viable.
"Surrounded by great mountains and green landscapes, we are reminded today of what we are working to protect: nature’s ancient treasures and living ecosystems, that sustain livelihoods, culture, and resilience."
To shift such attitudes and behaviours, UNDP’s Nature Pledge sets out three critical changes needed to accelerate green financing.
First, UNDP is strengthening frameworks and regulations to make nature visible and valued.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), where UNDP is a key partner, guides financial flows towards nature-positive investments.
We’re also actively advancing regulatory innovation. For instance, Shanghai became China’s first city to include biodiversity considerations within green finance regulations in 2022. This marked a major milestone in aligning financial policies with nature.
Second, UNDP is reshaping financial tools, to drive private investment. For example:
In Costa Rica, a securitization approach uses projected revenues from national park entrance fees paid by tourists as collateral. This allows the country to issue sustainability bonds, releasing liquidity for biodiversity investments, without increasing public debt.
In Ecuador, through UNDP’s flagship Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), the National Development Bank is piloting green credit lines for small businesses. The co-developed screening system ensures that “green loans” are also nature-positive. Following the full deployment of the initial US$108 million allocated for the initiative, more than US$800 million was successfully disbursed by the middle of last year — demonstrating growing demand for sustainable finance and the opportunities of mainstreaming nature in more traditional “green” finance frameworks.
In China, BIOFIN partners with government, academic, and financial institutions in Shanghai and Shandong on next-generation biodiversity finance products. This includes new tools like biodiversity bonds, biodiversity insurance, and blended finance - using concessional loans and grants to catalyze commercial investment.
UNDP is also looking to bring our BIOFIN programme here to Guizhou, where we would help to assess potential for a provincial biodiversity credit system to channel private funds directly into protecting and restoring nature. The goal is to mobilize new capital, while ensuring emerging green finance standards align with the Kunming Framework and SDGs.
Blended finance is among the most effective tools for biodiversity investment partnerships. Recently, at the global level, UNDP signed an MOU with AIIB to explore entry points for grant funding to support its lending. This would reduce loan costs for governments, and make green investments more affordable.
Third, UNDP is leveraging digital finance and technology, to revolutionize how conservation projects are financed and managed.
In the Philippines, through partnerships with mobile wallet providers, BIOFIN has supported initiatives such as "G-Forest,” a gamified platform incentivizing forest restoration.
Artificial intelligence is also promising. With support from the Rockefeller Foundation and other partners, UNDP is developing the concept of digital nature IDs as digital public infrastructure. These integrate real-time ecosystem monitoring data and AI to boost transparency and traceability, for informed and sustainable investments.
When nature's value is made visible, measurable, and legally recognized, it becomes harder to overlook or exploit.
Our commitment to solutions that promote this is stronger than ever.
UNDP looks forward to deepening our cooperation to save biodiversity, in China and beyond – ensuring a future for both people, and the only planet we call home.
In closing, I want to thank both Guizhou Provincial government and Fudan University as co-organizers for today’s event.
Surrounded by great mountains and green landscapes, we are reminded today of what we are working to protect: nature’s ancient treasures and living ecosystems, that sustain livelihoods, culture, and resilience.
Thank you.
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