In December 2022, the world’s governments agreed to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — an ambitious set of targets for halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. The so-called ’30×30′ target commits governments to protecting 30% of land and ocean by decade’s end. Target 19 commits to mobilising USD 200 billion per year from all sources for biodiversity-related expenditures.
The problem, as our research reveals, is that the USD 200 billion figure was based on estimates that are now several years old, and the actual investment gap is substantially larger. Updating the assessment for current biodiversity loss trends, expanded restoration commitments, and improved ecosystem service valuation methodologies, we estimate the annual gap at between USD 720 billion and USD 967 billion — roughly three to five times the committed mobilisation target.