Guernsey Finance’s Head of Strategy and Sustainable Finance, Stephanie Glover, and Director General William Mason of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, attended COP15 – the UN Biodiversity Conference – in Montreal earlier this month.
COP15 saw governments from around the world coming together to try to agree on a new set of goals to halt and reverse nature loss.
This event comes shortly after the launch of Guernsey’s Natural Capital Fund framework, as part of its growing Sustainable Funds Regime. The Natural Capital Fund regime offers a regulatory designation for funds to help channel investment into biodiversity and natural capital projects that make a positive contribution and/or significantly reduce harm to the natural world. The intention is to provide environmentally conscious investors with assurance that their capital is deployed in efforts to promote the protection and recovery of the Earth’s natural environment.
William spoke at the World Biodiversity Summit, working with Guernsey Finance, to explain the contribution the Bailiwick is making to grow environmental finance at a session entitled, “Business and Finance for Biodiversity: Closing the Nature Finance Gap.”
The Natural Capital Fund framework complements the Bailiwick’s existing regulated Guernsey Green Fund regime, which now channels more than £5.3 billion into green investments. Together the Guernsey Green Fund and Natural Capital Fund regimes provide the Bailiwick with a suite of sustainability designations based on international environmental standards.
During the event, William also spoke on a panel exploring the potential for private finance to invest in protecting nature for biodiversity and climate objectives in support of the proposed new Global Biodiversity Framework.
Speaking about his participation in the panel, William said: “To address the human existential challenge posed by continuing nature and especially biodiversity loss, private investment is desperately required to supplement insufficient public funds. The key to progress is to develop and fund nature positive projects which offer a genuine financial return.”
