UNDP SIDS Bulletin | Issue 50

Dominican Republic proposes a new fund to finance sustainable recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean
 

During the last Ibero-American Environmental Week, the Dominican Republic proposed the creation of a “Recovery and Restructuring Fund for Latin America”. This fund would finance the decarbonization of regional economies in the fields of infrastructure, industrialization as well as research and innovation, through long term and zero interest rates loans. Markets can shape behaviors and the right incentives can push stakeholders towards sustainable development models. This presents an important opportunity for Caribbean SIDS to finance blue economy, climate action or digital transformation strategies. Moreover, SIDS demonstrate commitment to sustainable development once again. The Dominican Republic also happens to be the 4th largest contributor to UNDP in 2020.

As economies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, “building forward better” must equate to “building forward greener and bluer”. Initiatives such as the Dominican proposed fund can incentivize this. However, it is in every country’s interest to heavily invest in climate action since, according to a WWF report, the world economy stands to lose $10 trillion over the next 30 years if the global community does not urgently address the nature and climate emergency.

Global funds step up investment in coral reefs protection, including $125 million from the Green Climate Fund

A recent report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates the export value in ocean-based industries globally at $2.5 trillion, confirming that Blue Economy has substantial growth potential. However, this estimate is based on 2018 data, when coastal and marine tourism was the biggest ocean industry, worth nearly half of the total export value ($1.1 trillion). As the COVID-19 pandemic saw tourism revenues plummet, the report suggests that countries heavily reliant on tourism, like SIDS, could benefit from “diversifying and upgrading their production towards niche and ocean-based activities with higher added value”. An important asset SIDS must invest in are coral reefs. Reefs account for $2.7 trillion per year in ecosystem services value, which are vital for coastal communities in SIDS. Indeed, coral reefs provide benefits including food provision, livelihoods support and coastal protection. Unfortunately, we have lost half of the world’s reefs since the 1950s and they continue to decline as a consequence of climate change, pollution and unsustainable tourism and fishing practices.
On the upside, the global community is increasingly coming together to preserve the remaining coral reefs. The Green Climate Fund has approved an investment of $125 million to the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR). In addition, Canada’s Prime Minister announced during COP 26, that his country will support GFCR with a $6 million contribution.
For SIDS, such funds are instrumental to bridge the coral reef funding gap by unlocking private sector investments. Recently, members of the GFCR Executive Board approved the financing of 4 projects, with 3 of them in SIDS. These projects include interventions like coral reef insurance, blue carbon and resilience credits in the the Bahamas, a Blue Economy Enterprise Incubation Facility in Papua New Guinea, and the identification and development of reef-positive market solutions in the Solomon Islands.
UNDP is a committed partner in coral restoration efforts, be it through joining the GFCR’s coalition of partners or implementing projects through its Climate Adaptation Fund; such as initiatives in the Republics of Mauritius and Seychelles funded by a $10 million grant from the Adaptation Fund.

Machine learning used to assess more than 100,000 climate studies and highlight the lack of data on SIDS

In the recently published article “Machine-learning-based evidence and attribution mapping of 100 000 climate impact studies”, a group of scientists compiled the conclusions of over 100,000 studies to analyze the largest ever body of evidence on the impacts of climate change. Their aim is to demonstrate that these impacts are already affecting at least 80% of land areas, where 85% of the world's population lives. As they began mapping the results, they uncovered that climate change studies are “twice as likely to focus on wealthier countries in Europe and North America than low-income countries like those in Africa and the Pacific Islands”. Not only are countries in the Global South, especially SIDS, more impacted by the climate crisis, but they also lack the data and resources necessary for assessing the external shocks caused by climate change and implementing the mitigation and adaptation measures necessary to fight against it. Therefore, gathering data is an urgent priority for SIDS. It is essential as sea-level rise accelerates, and natural disasters are five times more frequent than they were in previous decades. This study highlights how useful machine learning and geospatial analytics tools can be for SIDS. As presented in issue 48 of the SIDS Bulletin, other digital technologies such as satellite monitoring systems, can be used to enhance disaster response and build climate resilience. 

How to fill the marine conservation funding gap ?
 

The ocean nurtures 80% of all forms of life, generates half the oxygen we breathe and absorb 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions, it also provides many communities with food and jobs, especially in SIDS. So, protecting oceans from anthropogenic impacts, such as pollution, unsustainable tourism or over-fishing, is vital to maintain the ecosystem services they provide. Marine protected areas(MPA) are a key tool to achieve this goal. Safeguarding biodiversity through MPAs brings many benefits, such as enhanced food supplies, opportunities for sustainable tourism, shoreline protection and greater resilience to climate change. While several organizations, like the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), are calling for 30% protection of oceans by 2030, only 7.91% of ocean areas are currently declared as MPAs (20% lower than the ambition set by the Aichi Biodiversity Target 14). The inadequate financing of more than 60% of MPAs is one of the main hurdles to their expansion and effectiveness. 
A team of scientists used fish populations as a proxy for ecological effects of MPAs and set up a database on the impact of relationships between management processes and ecological effects . They concluded that MPAs without enough staff had 3 times less ecological effect than those with sufficient staff capacity. This funding gap can be filled by establishing public-private partnerships, like in Belize’s  Turneffe Atoll MPA, which received $1.2 million of investments. Scaling up this approach to financing marine conservation could be especially useful for SIDS, since they often lack the fiscal space to ratchet up public funding. Many MPAs managed through such partnerships are financially sustainable, such as the Bonaire National Marine Park. However, in order to be successful, PPPs require a match between an MPA with a tangible business model, and investors who accept patient capital.