By Simon Jessop
LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) – A group of Caribbean countries plan to raise $200 million for a joint bid to boost biodiversity, in a push for more influence on internationally financed environment projects to maximise their impact, Grenada’s climate ambassador has told Reuters.
The 30X30 initiative by the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and its 12 members is part of a broader global drive towards targets, agreed in 2022, that include protecting 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030.
The hope is that such cross-border initiatives, with government oversight from the start, will be more effective as they harness the power of multilateral, bilateral, philanthropic and private sector funding along with financial tools such as debt-for-nature swaps, Safiya Sawney said.
CARIBBEAN ISLANDS SEEK TO MAKE ENVIRONMENT FINANCE PAY
While around $650 million was raised to fund conservation in member states over the 20 years to 2024, governments often had to consider the priorities of multilateral donors before their own. For lack of coordination, some donors duplicated efforts.
“From the outside looking in, you say, ‘Well, that’s a lot of money. Why do you need more?’. The issue … is that we’re not seeing that in the impact,” she added, in an interview last week.
A report from the Back to Blue initiative, which focuses on ocean sustainability policy, suggested regional approaches such as “OECS 30X30” could be transformative in closing a huge funding gap.
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) worldwide – which will bear the brunt of rising sea levels – need around $12 billion a year to adapt to the effects of climate change, and get just $2 billion, according to the Global Center on Adaptation.
“There’s a huge disconnect between what the governments have invested time and effort into planning for themselves, based on their own indigenous circumstances, and what the donor is funding,” Sawney said.
“We’re challenging them to say ‘No, you have to do a better job if you really want to ensure that your money stretches. You have to trust us, trust that we know what would we need to do for ourselves’.”
Sawney said that, as development aid budgets are cut in richer countries, it was important to scale projects regionally and attract more private sector investors.
“For us, the programme is really, really important because it’s really on us to be able to show investors, particularly non-traditional investors, that we’re a good bet.”
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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