Unlocking Sustainable Land Use and Adaptation Investments for climate action: Innovative finance solutions

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is at the forefront of fostering innovative financial solutions to address pressing global challenges related to sustainable land use and adaptation as part of climate action. This event serves as a platform to delve into these pioneering initiatives, engage in in-depth discussions, and explore how these initiatives are instrumental in promoting sustainable land use, enhancing ecosystem resilience, and catalyzing public and private investment for climate action.

Key Initiatives: At the heart of this event lies the innovation of financial solutions that UNEP has nurtured in the domains of land use and adaptation.

These initiatives include:

AGRI3 Fund: This fund serves as a guaranteed mechanism to facilitate loans extended over a period of 10-12 years, supporting agricultural projects that contribute to sustainable land use and adaptation.

Global EbA Fund: This is a funding mechanism implemented by UNEP and IUCN that targets catalytic, innovative, and inclusive projects aimed at creating an enabling environment for the implementation of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA). The Fund aims to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities and ecosystems to the impacts of climate change through EbA.

The Responsible Commodities Facility (RCF) provides a mechanism for the 57 investor signatories of the Cerrado Manifesto on Sustainable Soy to address the environmental harms caused by soy production in their portfolios. RCF provides low-interest loans to incentivize farmers in the Cerrado region of Brazil to commit to deforestation and conversion-free soy production. The loans are securitized and listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange and then sold to major corporations such as Tesco, Waitrose, and Sainsburys, effectively turning major U.K. supermarkets into impact investors.

The &Green Fund provides an investment option for institution investors to address forest risk commodities exposure across their portfolio. &Green provides concessional, long-term debt, which is tied to strict traceability and transparency requirements, to support sustainable agricultural production value chains and protect tropical forests. &Green is currently financing deforestation-free coffee supply chains in Vietnam through to reduced deforestation of palm oil in Indonesia.