The Government of the France will contribute €24 million to the Natural Capital Lab of the Inter-American Development Bank, becoming its founding donor. France´s Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Brune Poirson, and IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno today signed the establishment of the initiative on the sidelines of Chile COP25 in Madrid, Spain.
By backing the Natural Capital Lab, France will help countries in Latin America and the Caribbean move forward with innovative projects to fight deforestation, invest in nature-based solutions to environmental problems, facilitate the transition to climate-smart agriculture, and preserve and restore marine and land biodiversity.
Specifically, the Natural Capital Lab will incubate, accelerate, and scale solutions in the sustainable use and conservation of landscape and marine ecosystems, serving as a new space where the public and private sectors can work together.
It will also work to develop a set of knowledge products, cutting edge projects, and collaborations to help set the regional and international agenda on how to treat nature as an asset in the run‑up to the Biodiversity Conference of the Parties of 2020 and beyond.
The announcement of France’s donation underscores the importance of the natural capital in the COP25 agenda and the need to develop new financing models and partnerships to tackle environmental risks and climate change.
About the IDB Group
The IDB Group is the leading source of development finance for Latin America and the Caribbean. It helps to improve lives by providing financial solutions and development know-how to public and private sector clients. The group comprises the IDB, which has worked with governments for 60 years; IDB Invest, which serves the private sector; and IDB Lab, which tests innovative ways to enable more inclusive growth.