At the broadest level, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a roadmap of 17 goals for all nations to protect the planet, end poverty, and promote prosperity by 2030. A 2015 Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) working paper estimated that meeting the SDGs by 2030 will require additional investments in the order of US$ 2-3 trillion (Schmidt-Traub and Sachs, 2015). Within this, it’s estimated that approximately $18-48 billion will be needed for conservation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems and biodiversity, including Goal 14 which aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
To narrow the focus to global biodiversity conservation, a good starting place are the financial needs assessments for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB). The most recent financial needs assessment presented at the 2012 CBD COP11 in Hyderabad, India estimated that approximately $35- $87 billion was required to achieve all 20 Aichi Targets by 2020. When looking at marine specific Aichi Targets, including Targets 6, 7, 10, and 11, the funding amount was estimated to be approximately
$803 – 1,388 billion over the 2012-2020 period, or about $100 - 174 billion per year. And this does not include the several hundreds of billions estimated for control of marine invasive species and managing marine debris and pollution/runoff into coastal areas (Resourcing the Aichi Biodiversity Targets: A First Assessment of the Resources Required for Implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, 2011).
Digging a bit deeper to financing specific to marine conservation issues, a 2012 UNDP publication estimates an initial public investment of approximately $5 billion per year over the next 10-20 years is required to reduce and arrest the degradation of coastal and ocean resources (Catalysing Ocean Finance, 2012). But the majority of financing for marine conservation will likely need to be leveraged from private sector partners. Globally, there are very few public granting organizations that can both invest in the national, regional, and global marine commons while also directly aiming to leverage private sector investments.
The largest public funder of the environment, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is uniquely positioned to not only fill this funding gap, but more importantly leverage and influence private sector investments so that a maximum of financing is directed at addressing common marine conservation goals. Established in 1991, the Global Environment Facility is a partnership of countries, international institutions, civil society organizations, and private sector, to assist in the protection of the global environment and to promote environmental sustainable development. By providing incremental grants to cover the costs associated with transforming a project to yield global environmental benefits, the GEF ability to catalyze public-private interests is unparalleled. To date, the GEF has provided over $14.5 billion in grants and leveraged over $75.4 billion in additional financing for over 4,000 projects. While having an impact, the GEF’s current level of funding is significantly lower than what is needed to conserve the global environment – especially the marine environment.
In its current four-year funding stream, the amount of GEF funding directed to coastal and marine issues is approximately $600 million for four years, split among approximately $220 million for transboundary coastal and marine investments and $400 million for marine biodiversity conservation in support of national commitments to Aichi Targets and the CBD. With the next four-year GEF replenishment starting in July 2018, negotiations among developed and developing countries regarding the amount of GEF funding and objectives will begin in 2016. If governments are serious about implementing the environmental pledges made in the last few years, then funding for next GEF replenishment should be substantially higher. By some accounts, for a GEF to have the global impact it was designed to have, then governments must agree to increase contributions from the $1.1 billion per year to $6 billion (Schmidt-Traub and Sachs, 2015). More importantly, as one of the last remaining global commons, the world’s oceans rely more on investments from public financing sources like the GEF than other environments. Future GEF replenishments should pay particular attention towards funding coastal and marine issues to ensure an overall improved ocean health.
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