Governing Biodiversity Credit Markets

Part of SDG Tent at Davos 2023 · Davos 2023

This event took place on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 8:00 PM UTC.

Ocean Room. Biodiversity credit markets are on the rise, with a remarkable array of related initiatives on display at COP15 in Montreal. Considering recent carbon market experience, there is both considerable enthusiasm for the potential for biodiversity credit markets to generate finance for nature and concern that they might develop in ways that prove damaging to nature and inequitable in their economic impact. In bridging potential and concern, growing attention is being paid to the all-important definitions of biodiversity credits and their verifiability, including the use of standard certification approaches and digital platforms such as blockchain to ensure robust traceability. Beyond this, the need for high integrity credit markets is generating debate, design and advocacy for broader governance innovations, ranging from proposals for high level principles to radical disclosure, regulatory arrangements, and new legal frameworks.