TIFS Director Rex Raimond and Senior Advisor David Bennell will be attending COP15, the UN Biodiversity Conference, the week of 12.12.

David Bennell will speak on a panel discussing THE POWER OF FINANCE – Aligning agricultural subsidies with nature and biodiversity goals: shifting the trillions towards a nature-positive economy.

The UN estimates there are nearly $500B in unsustainable agricultural subsidies globally that are harmful to health and nature. Across sectors the world is spending at least $1.8 trillion a year on subsidies that drive the destruction of ecosystems.

COP15’s Food Day features a panel discussion on “THE POWER OF FINANCE,”  which addresses how we can align agricultural subsidies with sustainability and biodiversity goals and shift the trillions in subsidies towards a nature-positive economy. The panel brings together experts from the world of finance and investment, academic, civil society groups and youth to discuss how we can drive change to repurpose agricultural subsidies to protect the ecosystems we rely on for food, livelihoods and for our economy.

Beyond subsidies, we need to do everything we can to ensure public and private finance is nature positive. Private finance portfolios are starting to shift in this direction, but more action is needed. Private finance does not have to wait for regulatory or policy changes. They can act now! Many examples of investable opportunities exist that are economically viable and protect nature and biodiversity. By adopting systems approaches to evaluating risks, the private financial sector can identify unassigned risks such as loss of nature and biodiversity or the interdependencies of climate change, nature loss, and economic instability.

Join TIFS and other experts in the field of food Helena Wright, Policy Director at Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (FAIRR), Alexander Burr, ESG Policy Lead at Legal & General Investment Management, Sabrina Masinjila, Outreach and Advocacy Officer at the African Center for Biodiversity, Doreen Robinson, Head of Biodiversity & Land at the UN Environment Programme, Joao Campari, Global Leader, Food Practice at the WWF, and Tony Juniper chair of Natural England.

See below for more information