DUBAI – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) have published a set of common principles to track nature-positive finance, making it easier for MDBs to implement screening and tracking systems that quantify the volume of finance going to nature-positive activities from direct and indirect activities.  

Announced during the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP28), the principles deliver on the commitment made by MDBs in the Joint Statement on Nature, People and Planet, signed at COP26. They are also intended to help MDBs track the support they provide to clients in accordance with the commitments made under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

The common principles define nature-positive finance, in the context of MDBs, as financing that supports actions that protect, restore or enhance the sustainable use and management of nature, or enable these actions, contributing to the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework and its broad ambition to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, with a view to full recovery by 2050. 

Nature is key to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and is essential to solving many development challenges such as health, jobs and livelihoods, inequality, climate change, food and energy security and fragility.  

The principles set out eligibility, screening and tracking criteria for nature-positive finance. Financing instruments include investment loans, policy-based financing, results-based financing instruments, equity investments, MDB assistance to clients in developing sustainable or thematic bonds, guarantees, credit lines, advisory services and grants, among others. 

Latest IDB developments on nature-based investments 

The IDB remains committed to being a leader in supporting a net-zero, nature-positive future and continues to deliver on its nature commitments, also explicitly including biodiversity as a key area of work in its upcoming Institutional Strategy.   

At COP28, the IDB announced new actions that strengthen its delivery under the pillars of the Joint Statement on Nature People and Planet. It committed to the goal of tripling its climate financing over the next 10 years to $150 billion.   

In addition, the IDB announced that eight international organizations and development finance institutions spanning the globe will boost financial instruments for sustainable climate- and nature-linked sovereign financing, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the IDB will lead a task force to oversee the new group’s progress.  

The IDB CLIMA mechanism provides the borrower with a discount in the form of a grant, equivalent to 5% of the loan’s principal, when nature and climate objectives of selected loan projects are met. The first nine countries joining IDB CLIMA are Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Suriname and Uruguay. 

The IDB will continue to lead among MDBs on debt-for-nature conversions, working with co-guarantors and partners to deliver up to $2 billion for conservation outcomes in the next 5 years. This year, the IDB and the DFC supported the largest-ever conversion to protect the Hermandad Marine Reserve in the Galapagos, which allowed Ecuador to buy back $1.6 billion, generating more than $450 million for conservation over a period 18 years.  

To help protect the Amazon, the IDB in August launched Amazonia Forever, a holistic umbrella program that aims to protect biodiversity and accelerate sustainable development. The IDB Group is committing up to $5 billion in additional financing for the Amazon over the next 10 years for sustainable development projects, leveraging partnerships and funding from countries and other stakeholders. 

IDB Lab, the innovation and venture arm of the IDB Group, and the IDB’s Natural Capital Lab (NCL) are collaborating in building the ecosystem of companies dedicated to nature-positive investing, through the Natura Tech initiative, which accelerates the adoption of new technologies for effective forestry and agroforestry, sustainable agriculture and bio-based value chains. This effort complements IDB Lab's portfolio of more than 100 climate and nature tech companies invested directly and through venture funds.  

This work adds to existing activity the IDB is doing on valuing nature for decision-making and investment, leveraging concessional resources, and supporting countries in implementing net-zero nature-positive frameworks. The IDB’s Natural Capital Lab is deploying $60 million from France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States to support a wide range of activities around biodiversity mainstreaming and finance. A partial list of IDB latest achievements in line with the Joint Statement is available here. 

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Latin America and the Caribbean at COP28  

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are a critical part of the solution to global climate change challenges. In the IDB Pavilion of the Americas at COP28, the Bank is hosting more than 30 events with international leaders and experts to showcase initiatives on climate action, from cutting-edge financial instruments to the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, the Amazon, a just economic transition and more. Journalists covering COP28 on site are welcome to visit the pavilion, with no registration required. Consult the event schedule here. For journalists covering COP28 remotely, register to access broadcasts of selected events.  

Location: IDB Pavilion of the Americas at Blue Zone, Opportunity District (OA04G2), Pavilion #56