COP16 Biodiversity Misalignment Briefer

At the 2024 COP16 conference in Colombia, the Stop Financing Factory Farming (S3F) Campaign presented a briefer highlighting contradictions in agricultural investments by leading Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

The briefer focused on the gap between MDBs’ stated commitments and their actual practices. It also outlined steps MDBs can take to align their investments with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Developed during COP15, the GBF sets an ambitious vision for a world living in harmony with nature by 2050.

Target 14 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) requires public and private financial flows to be aligned with the goals of the GBF. To achieve this, Multilateral Development Banks must stop financing the industrial livestock sector, as it is the largest driver of biodiversity loss globally. Shifting finance to more sustainable food systems will also promote nutritionally superior diets and will help achieve multiple SDGs.

The rigorous assessment of the policies of 6 large Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) showed that none have embedded the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in their credit policies.