<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>From: <strong class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">Hazel Henderson</strong> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:hazel.henderson@ethicalmarkets.com">hazel.henderson@ethicalmarkets.com</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 3:52 AM<br>Subject: PRESS RELEASE-Finance for Biodiversity - Aligning Development Finance with Nature's Needs: Protecting Nature's Development Dividend<br>To: Larae Long <<a href="mailto:larae.long@ethicalmarkets.com">larae.long@ethicalmarkets.com</a>><br></div><br><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Dear Esteemed Global Advisory Board and Judges Panel,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Informational material below with PDF attached:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:red">IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 00.01 GMT Monday Nov. 9<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">World’s development banks endangering vulnerable ecosystems worth US$1.1 trillion/year</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">LONDON, Nov. 9 (F4B) –</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black"> Development finance institutions (DFIs) worldwide are endangering nature worth an estimated US$1.1
trillion annually, and more than a quarter of their total US$11.2 trillion loan book is highly dependent on vulnerable ecosystems</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">, found a study by Finance for Biodiversity (F4B), published on Wednesday.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Globally, there are more than 450 development finance institutions (DFIs), which invest about US$2 trillion annually. Almost all are accountable to one or several governments, and ultimately to
their citizens, and their core purpose is to facilitate sustainable </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">development.
</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Sustainable development is inextricably linked to nature, because of the benefits that nature provides for businesses,
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">including sustaining the quantity and quality of air, water and soils, regulating the climate, providing pollination and pest control, and reducing the impact of natural hazards such as
storms and floods. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">B</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">iodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">, however, and the drivers
of these losses are intensifying. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Wednesday’s report, “Aligning Development Finance with Nature’s Needs: Protecting Nature’s Development Dividend”, found that DFIs are endangering nature with an expected value of
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">US$1.1 trillion annually. This </span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">is the first analysis to date to place a monetary value on a financial institution’s potential impact on nature.
</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">In addition, the report found that DFIs are exposing themselves to extraordinary risks by failing to account for their dependence on declining biodiversity, a “dependency risk” estimated
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">at US$3.1 trillion. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">These dependencies and nature impacts are two sides of the same coin – one firm’s damage to nature can lead to financial loss for another dependent on that nature.
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">This feedback loop shows why these biodiversity-related risks are<b>
</b>important leading indicators of material financial risk, and why immediate action is needed to address the issue.
</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">DFIs are holding their first ever global conference on November 11-12, at the Finance in Commons Summit, convened by French President Emanuel Macron, in what should be a key moment to assess how
the global DFI community is performing. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">“The world’s government-owned banks are meant to be at the leading edge of development finance practice, a symbol of progressive lending practices for the world’s private investors,” said Simon
Zadek, chair of F4B, which produced the report. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">“</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">But mostly their investments are dependent on precious, vulnerable biodiversity resources, and too often place these resources
further at risk. F4B’s calculations point to the urgent need for DFIs to commit to lending practices that deliver positive nature gains.”
</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Wednesday’s report recommended that all DFIs commit, and undertake within the next year, to publish a balance sheet-wide stress test of nature-related financial risks and impacts, and so catalyse
similar action by private financial institutions and generate wider sustainable development benefits.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Dependency risk refers to the extent that the financing activities of DFIs are highly dependent on nature which is already vulnerable.
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Almost all businesses in some way depend upon benefits from nature. For example, fishers rely on healthy stocks of fish, and many farmers on wild pollinating insects. If these ecosystem services are already vulnerable
and declining, businesses are more at risk. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">The F4B report applied an assessment of nature dependency by economic sector, where agriculture and forestry score highly, for example. It combined this with country risk scores, according to
biodiversity abundance, the strength of local environmental laws, and national resource intensity, to calculate a dollar risk value.
</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">DFIs are also putting nature at risk, for example by driving deforestation, and in doing so, are exposing themselves to tighter environmental laws, or to litigation and reputation harm. To estimate
the risk DFIs pose to nature, F4B estimated the land and water footprint associated with DFI financing, and valued the resulting expected damage to biodiversity and ecosystem services, if not effectively mitigated.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">The report found that, by region, Asia had the highest dependency risk, reflecting the vulnerability of its remaining, high-value biodiversity, and the relatively larger DFI exposure to this region.
Asia also placed the most nature at risk, reflecting the large water footprint of lending in the region. Among sectors, the report found agriculture put most nature at risk, as a key driver of land use change including deforestation, while energy and water
utilities scored the highest dependency risk, reflecting their high reliance on reliable freshwater.
</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p align="left" style="text-align:left"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">CHART. Collective DFI balance sheet, dependency risk and nature at risk</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black"><img width="397" height="296" style="width:4.1354in;height:3.0833in" id="m_5489703800200447423Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:175afee28594cff311" alt="Diagram
Description automatically generated"></span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Media contact<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Gerard Wynn (</span><a href="mailto:press@f4b-initiative.net" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-GB">press@f4b-initiative.net</span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">)
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB">About Finance for Biodiversity<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Finance for Biodiversity (F4B) aims to increase the materiality of biodiversity in financial decision-making, and so better align global finance with nature conservation and restoration. F4B is
advancing five workstreams that create and amplify the feedback signals that increase the value of biodiversity in private and public financing decisions:</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0in" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:110%">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Market efficiency and innovation</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:110%">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Biodiversity-related liability</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:110%">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Bridging biodiversity policy and financial rules and behaviour</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:110%">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Citizen engagement and public campaigns</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></li></ul>
<p style="margin-left:17.85pt;line-height:110%">
<u></u><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u></u><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Responses to the COVID crisis</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">For more information, visit
<a href="http://www.f4b-initiative.net" target="_blank">www.f4b-initiative.net</a>.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black">Hazel </span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color:black"><img border="0" width="625" height="290" style="width:6.5104in;height:3.0208in" id="m_5489703800200447423Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:175afee28595b16b22"></span><span lang="EN-GB"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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</div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://wiki.p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br>Discuss: <a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><br><br>Updates: ; <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a></div><div><br></div><div>Curation of news on p2p/commons developments: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/p2p.open/" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/groups/p2p.open/</a><br><br><br><br><br></div></div></div></div>