Finance for forests: 2017 NYDF Assessment report

"Grey" finance for forest-risk activities dwarfs "green" finance for forest protection 40 to 1. The 2017 NYDF Assessment report examines progress toward Goals 8 and 9.

Support for the development and implementation of strategies to reduce forest emissions remains insufficient. The magnitude of finance is highly disproportionate to the investment needs and the mitigation potential of the forest sector. Finance for forests in deforestation countries accounts for just over one percent of global mitigation-related development funding. Yet, tropical forests can provide up to 30 percent of the climate change mitigation needed to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

In the 2017 NYDF Assessment report examines progress to date on NYDF Goals 8 and 9. In it, we captured the flows of “green finance” aligned with forest and climate goals, and compared them with “grey finance,” which has an unclear but potentially negative impact on forests. The report provides a limited picture of the state of forest and climate finance, but despite data gaps, the message is clear:

While there are promising developments, total finance for Goals 8 and 9 - roughly USD 20 billion since 2010 - is insufficient and does not reflect the importance of forests as part of the climate solution. The amount is marginal compared to the USD 777 billion in “grey finance” for the land sector that influences forests and is not clearly aligned with forest and climate goals.