Pedro Guazo, Representative of the Secretary-General for the investment of the UNJSPF assets, discussed the Fund’s role in financing global biodiversity projects at the fifth annual 2024 Impact Summit America. Organized by the Phenix Capital Group, the summit brings together thought leaders and practitioners in impact investing.

Highlighting the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) which recently convened in Cali, Colombia, Mr. Guazo spoke about the opportunity to achieve quantifiable outcomes through impacting investing in nature and biodiversity projects.

“With US$200 billion a year earmarked to finance and meet climate and biodiversity goals by 2030, investing in nature and biodiversity is not only central to the objectives and returns of our portfolio, but it gives us the chance to measure impact,” he said.

Mr. Guazo pointed to the economic opportunities and challenges of investing in nature, especially in emerging economies.  “Most of the effects and destruction of nature and biodiversity are in the global south – as is the case with climate change. As institutional investors, we need to deploy capital to finance nature and biodiversity projects,” he noted.

Mr. Guazo spoke about the challenges institutional investors face in financing current project options due to their relatively limited scale. This makes it difficult to find projects and initiatives that meet the Fund’s investment criteria.

“As institutional investors, we are calling out to the markets to scale up and make it easier for investors to make economic sense of the projects that we could finance,” he said.

To help address this challenge, UNJSPF is advocating for policymakers to set clear rules and transparent disclosure standards on climate and ESG to systematize project offerings.  “Let’s bring scale and ensure that policymakers agree on rules to derisk these investment opportunities,” he underscored.