The Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has called for renewed global action on nature as she set out a path forward for nature at COP’s Biodiversity Day yesterday.

Outlining the importance of next month’s meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, she is calling on countries to come together at that summit and agree a robust global plan for tackling nature loss. While significant progress has been made, more action is needed from both the public and private sectors to bridge the reported $700bn funding gap needed to stop nature loss.

Amongst a series of pledges, the UK Government will commit £30m of seed finance into the Big Nature Impact Fund – a new public-private fund for nature in the UK which will unlock significant private investment into nature projects, such as new tree planting or restoring peatlands. Managed by Federated Hermes and Finance Earth, these habitat creation projects will aid small business growth and job creation as well as soak up carbon emissions and support cleaner air and water.

Speaking at Biodiversity Day at COP27, Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said: “Over half of the world’s GDP reliant on nature, which is why the United Kingdom  put nature at the heart of our COP26 Presidency and led calls to protect 30 per cent of land and ocean by 2030.

“We continue to demonstrate international leadership through commitments to create a natural world that is richer in plants and wildlife to tackle the climate crisis, and at next month’s meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity we will strive for an ambitious agreement that includes a global 30by30 target, a commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and an increase in resources for the conservation and protection of nature from all sources.”

Ninety-five world leaders and more than 100 non-state actors have now signed the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature which commits to global action to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

The UK, together with Ecuador, Gabon and the Maldives, recently led the creation of a Political Vision: 10 Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity (10PP), launched with 17 early endorsers. At COP27, ministers and representatives from 15 existing signatories and others were drawn together in a closed door meeting to kick-start next steps on translating this plan into action ahead of CBD-COP15.2 in Montreal.