55 developing countries spanning six continents and representing over two billion people have formally applied for funding from the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) new Nature, People, and Climate (NPC) investment program.
Productive and sustainable use of the Earth’s natural resources is essential to the health, food security, nutrition, and economic well-being of people around the world. NPC aims to pilot and scale nature-based solutions in developing countries.
The large applicant pool seeking funding from NPC demonstrates strong demand for finance to promote and protect natural environments integral to climate action, sustainable agriculture and food supply, healthy forests, resilient coastal systems, and empowering Indigenous peoples and local communities.
The nature finance gap is expansive. According to the United Nations, annual nature investments from G20 nations alone need to increase by an additional $165 billion per year—an increase of 140% from existing levels—to realize biodiversity, land restoration and climate targets by 2050. Globally, investments will have to scale up fourfold by 2050. Current G20 spending is estimated to be $120 billion per year.
The detailed expressions of interest for NPC, submitted by governments with support from multilateral partners, represent the first step in a selection process to identify the first participating countries. A panel of independent experts is carefully assessing the proposals according to their potential for transformational change, private sector mobilization, and other metrics. The evaluation is then transmitted to CIF’s governing board, comprising representatives of contributor and program participant countries, who select initial NPC recipients.