UK Target 19: The UK will contribute to substantially and progressively increasing the level of financial resources from all sources, in an effective, timely and easily accessible manner, including domestic, international, public and private resources, in accordance with Article 20 of the Convention, to implement national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and contribute to the global targets for mobilising at least $200 billion per year by 2030:

(a)        Increasing total biodiversity related international financial resources from developed countries, including official development assistance, and from countries that voluntarily assume obligations of developed country Parties, to developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, to at least $20 billion per year by 2025, and to at least $30 billion per year by 2030;

(b)        Significantly increasing domestic resource mobilisation, facilitated by the preparation and implementation of national biodiversity finance plans or similar instruments according to national needs, priorities and circumstances;

(c)        Leveraging private finance, promoting blended finance, implementing strategies for raising new and additional resources, and encouraging the private sector to invest in biodiversity, including through impact funds and other instruments;

(d)        Stimulating innovative schemes such as payment for ecosystem services, green bonds, biodiversity offsets and credits, and benefit-sharing mechanisms, with environmental and social safeguards;

(e)        Optimising co-benefits and synergies of finance targeting the biodiversity and climate crises;

(f)         Enhancing the role of collective actions, including by indigenous peoples and local communities, Mother Earth centric actions and non-market-based approaches including community based natural resource management and civil society cooperation and solidarity aimed at the conservation of biodiversity;[1]^,[2]

(g)        Enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of resource provision and use.

Commitments:

UK

• The UK remains committed to providing International Climate Finance (ICF) now and in the future.
• We will spend at least £3 billion of the £11.6 billion ICF pledge on protecting and restoring nature between 2021/22 and 2025/26. From this £3 billion, we will spend £1.5 billion on forests to support the Global Forest Finance Pledge. 
• We will invest up to £200 million for the Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use Phase 2 Programme, which will mobilise private sector investment into forest protection and restoration, address deforestation associated with agricultural commodity production, scale up support to smallholder farmers, and support jobs and strengthened livelihoods in poor rural communities. 
• We will deliver the £200 million Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) programme to bring together private and public finance for tropical and subtropical forest conservation through carbon markets.  
• We will invest £130 million towards the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Carbon Fund, to support and incentivise ambitious actions to reduce deforestation through payments for verified emission reductions generated by jurisdictional REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries and additional forest-related activities that protect the climate) programmes.
• We will invest £65 million towards the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the land use sector through sustainable landscape management in Indonesia, Ethiopia, Mexico, Colombia and Zambia.
• We will commit £120 million to the Brazilian Amazon Fund to reduce deforestation and finance sustainable production and a bioeconomy that benefits marginalised communities, women and girls, the control of illegal activities, land use planning, and science and innovation.

• We will deliver the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund, strengthening management of ecosystems and reducing poverty across six biodiverse landscapes between 2022–2030.

• The UK has invested in the World Bank’s PROBLUE programme to support the sustainable and integrated development of marine and coastal resources in Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries. The UK has also invested in the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance to drive investment into coastal natural capital through the development of innovative finance solutions to build resilience in vulnerable coastal communities, and has provided financial and technical support for the creation of Fiji’s first Sovereign Blue Bond.
• We will allocate Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding that supports nature and the sustainable use of biodiversity through a range of international programmes, including the £94 million Darwin Initiative, to conserve biodiversity and reduce multi-dimensional poverty in low and middle-income countries, and the £34 million Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, a competitive grants scheme aimed at eradicating the illegal trade in wildlife and developing sustainable livelihoods to benefit people directly affected by the illegal wildlife trade.
• We will continue to deliver the UK’s £330 million contribution to the eighth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund (2022–2026) and £55 million contribution to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.
• We will ensure that new UK bilateral aid spending does no harm to nature.
• We will support the Global Centre for Biodiversity and Climate. 
• By 2025, we will deliver international private investment into sustainable development through UK-backed private financing, including for climate and nature through our Growth and Investment Partnerships.

England

• We will spend over £7 billion in England by 2030 to protect and restore nature.
• We will spend £2.3 billion per year until 2029 through Environmental Land Management schemes and grants under the Agricultural Transition Programme. 
• We will continue to implement the Biodiversity Net Gain condition for planning permissions that was launched in February 2024 to support nature recovery, requiring new developments to provide a 10% gain for biodiversity.

Scotland

• We will encourage responsible private investment in natural capital, publishing proposals for a market framework that strengthens the interim principles we set out in 2022, to help meet our climate change and biodiversity goals, support communities and align with a just transition.  
• We developed and published a Biodiversity Investment Plan.
• We are providing grant funding to support eligible land managers to deliver peatland restoration. This will enable at least 20,000 ha of peatland restoration per year from 2018–19.
• We are increasing investment in Scotland’s Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund and the benefits delivered to Scotland’s coasts and seas.
• We will continue to develop and enhance the woodland and peatland carbon codes to attract and assist additional investment and develop other codes where appropriate.

Wales

• The Welsh Government recognises the role of the financial services industry in supporting the investment required for Wales to play its role in delivering the UK’s net zero targets and biodiversity action. It is committed to ensuring that investment supports a just transition in Wales and as such is working in partnership to identify appropriate financing models, coordinate and deliver investment for Net Zero Wales and the 30by30 biodiversity target (Target 3). 
• We are supporting financial disclosures and accounting in Wales through the delivery of innovation and digital strategies.
• We are continuing the Welsh Government Energy Service facilitation of project financing for public sector, community energy and decarbonisation schemes.
• We are establishing Sector and Regional Funds and Boards, with examples including the Economy Futures Fund, Circular Economy Fund, City Region Deals, Net Zero Industry Wales and the Woodland Financing Group.
• We are developing an action plan to deliver the 30by30 target (Target 3), including consideration of statutory biodiversity targets, ethical and transparent private investment in nature recovery.
• The Development Bank of Wales has committed to support net zero and climate adaptation targets. This includes the launch of the bank’s Green Business Loan Scheme providing Welsh businesses with a package of support to help them reduce carbon emissions and save on future energy bills.
• The Wales Coasts and Seas Partnership (CaSP Cymru) has co-ordinated a Working Group on Blue Investment, aiming to secure innovative and longer-term forms of public, private and blended finance to help deliver key objectives, including restoring Marine Protected Areas and transforming socio-economic systems.

Northern Ireland

• A Sustainable Agriculture Programme will be funded by the Northern Ireland Executive Agriculture budget of £329.4 million in 2025–26 and payments of approximately £250 million have already been made under the Farm Sustainability Transition payment, The Young Farmer Payment and the Protein Crops Scheme.
• PEACEPLUS, which is a cross-border funding programme supported by the EU, the UK Government, the Government of Ireland and the Northern Ireland administration, has a number of projects related to conservation, recovery and restoration of marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats across Ireland and Northern Ireland. Many of the projects will contribute to targets within the Environmental Improvement Plan for Northern Ireland. These include €40m of funding between 2025–2028 to boost biodiversity, nature recovery and resilience within Northern Ireland and Ireland.
• The Marine Environment and Fisheries Fund has provided a number of projects in relation to blue carbon habitats, which will contribute to the evidence objective in the Blue Carbon Action Plan.
• The DAERA Environment Fund allocates £8–10million annually to the environment sector to deliver projects supporting nature and climate recovery: building ecological and climate resilience; and connecting people with nature.
• The Peatland Restoration Shared Island Co-operation Programme is supporting €3.5m of activities to support peatland restoration from 2024 until 2027.

UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies

The British Virgin Islands 

• We will develop, finance and implement regional ecosystem restoration initiatives focussing on degraded areas and key ecosystems, especially those important for food and water security as well as those critical for adaptation, mitigation and resilience to climate change and natural hazards. At least one of these initiatives should focus on the rehabilitation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems and associated wetlands.

The Falkland Islands

• We will continue to utilise the Green Innovation Fund which was implemented in 2022–2023 to generate funds for environmental funds.

UK

• We created The 10 Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity with Gabon, Ecuador and the Maldives in 2022. This has defined a pathway for bridging the global nature finance gap of $700 billion per year and aligning financial flows with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.
• We have continued to co-sponsor the Biodiversity Finance Trends dashboard, providing an update on the current trends in biodiversity finance from all sources to implement the GBF.
• We will continue to support action to unlock high-integrity Voluntary Carbon and Nature Markets.

England

• We have invested seed finance into the Big Nature Impact Fund – a new public-private fund for nature to unlock significant private investment into nature projects, such as new tree planting or restoring peatlands.
• We will sponsor the British Standards Institution’s Nature Investment Standards Programme and introduce new standards for biodiversity, natural carbon and nutrient markets, to boost confidence and scale up investment for nature and sustainable farming.

Scotland

• Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation and Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital set out our ambitions and expectations for a values-led, high-integrity market for responsible private investment in natural capital to communities, investors, landowners, public bodies and other market stakeholders.
• We will maintain and seek to increase investment in nature restoration through our £65 million Nature Restoration Fund.
• We will develop a Biodiversity Investment Plan to set out how we will address the Finance Gap for nature.
• We will establish a values-led, high-integrity market for responsible private investment in natural capital, supported by a national project pipeline for nature-based solutions.
• We will provide direction on and investment in green skills and local economic opportunities.
• We will continue to develop and enhance the woodland and peatland carbon codes to attract and assist additional investment.

Wales

• Our Biodiversity deep dive recommendations recognise that taking effective action to tackle the nature emergency by 2030 will require adequate funding. We will take immediate action to identify appropriate funding sources and the government interventions that may be needed to ensure these deliver for the benefit of Wales by developing a clear policy position on private investment in nature recovery, identifying the potential opportunities and anticipating the risks, including where these could be mitigated by appropriate government interventions and principles for responsible investment. We will explore sustainable funding mechanisms and opportunities to support work delivering the marine component of 30by30 (target 3), such as identifying funding mechanisms from emerging and developing industries, exploring levies and the role of Marine Net Benefit.
• In the longer term, we will increase public investment in nature’s recovery by ensuring the response to the nature emergency is integrated across government departments.

UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies

The Falkland Islands

• The Islands Plan 2022–2026 Delivery Plan sets out the blueprint for the Legislative Assembly and will stand as proof of the actions that we intend to take on behalf of generations to come.