Oldest climate fund plans wildlife bonds across Africa
Wildlife bonds, which provide low-cost funding in return for cutting poaching or other measures, were pioneered in 2022 with a World Bank-backed rhino bond and have seen a number of other examples since.
There was an issue targeting chimpanzee protection in Rwanda last year, and last month the GEF approved one for lemur conservation in Madagascar.
Fred Boltz, head of programming at GEF, which is linked to the World Bank, told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of African environment ministers that it aims to do one for every one of the 54 countries in Africa.
He said such a move would require an investment of $150 million from GEF, which would then be leveraged 10 times to provide a total of $1.5 billion for conservation efforts through other borrowing.
Money borrowed using wildlife bonds does not typically go onto the books of beneficiary governments, meaning they can offer much-needed financing to poorer countries, climate finance experts say.
They usually target emblematic species in order to appeal to specialist investors and wealthy philanthropists and their payouts are directly linked to conservation - the better the result the less the governments are usually required to pay out.
But GEF now hopes they can be expanded to include entire ecosystems such as wetlands, Boltz said.
The push by the fund, which was formed after the landmark Rio Earth Summit of 1992, comes as aid and development funding cuts by the United States and other major economies threatens some conservation projects.
"Many countries are asking, are suggesting, that in this tough official development assistance environment, that maintaining the last level of (species) replenishment may be difficult," Boltz said, "and that we might need to try to do more with less".
$7.7 billion investment
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has in total invested $7.7 billion in Africa in various projects, such as an $85 million effort to fight desertification in the Sahel region.
It is currently urging donors to replenish its cash for its next four-year cycle of programmes, starting next year.
Its last fundraising for its current cycle raised $5.3 billion - an increase of more than 30% from its last operating period amid a surge of support for international efforts to meet nature and climate targets.
That funding round got money from 29 countries, with the U.S. among the biggest donors, contributing $700 million.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
3 hours ago
- The Hindu
UN to use 'humanitarian pauses' to try to reach Gaza's starving
The United Nations said it would try to reach as many starving people as possible in Gaza after Israel announced it would establish secure land routes in for humanitarian convoys. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it had enough food in, or on its way to, the region to feed the 2.1 million people in the Gaza Strip for almost three months. UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X he welcomed the announcement of "humanitarian pauses". "In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window," he said. WFP said the pauses and corridors should allow emergency food to be safely delivered. "Food aid is the only real way for most people inside Gaza to eat," it said in a statement. It said a third of the population had not been eating for days, and 470,000 people in Gaza "are enduring famine-like conditions" that were leading to deaths. WFP said more than 62,000 tonnes of food assistance was needed monthly to cover the entire Gaza population of two million. The agency noted that, on top of Sunday's "pause" announcement, Israel had pledged to allow more trucks to enter Gaza with quicker clearances along with "assurances of no armed forces or shootings near convoys". "Together, we hope these measures will allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays," it said. 'Dystopian landscape' UN rights chief Volker Turk said Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, was obliged to ensure sufficient food was provided to the population. "Children are starving and dying in front of our eyes. Gaza is a dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction," he said in a statement. He criticised a U.S. and Israel-backed outfit, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), that in late May began distributing foodstuffs when UN-organised efforts were blocked. Mr. Turk said the GHF's "chaotic, militarised distribution sites were "failing utterly to deliver humanitarian aid at the scope and scale needed". His office says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the GHF started operations -- nearly three-quarters of them in the vicinity of GHF sites. 'Starvation crisis' "The starvation of people in Gaza must end now," UN refugees chief Filippo Grandi said on X. "Standing with UN and NGO colleagues ready to deliver desperately-needed, lifesaving aid to hundreds of thousands at risk of death." Fletcher's UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Friday that conditions on the ground in Gaza were "already catastrophic" and deteriorating. "The starvation crisis is deepening," it said. OCHA said UN teams were in place to ramp up deliveries into the Palestinian territory as soon as they were permitted to do so. "If Israel opens the crossings, lets fuel and equipment in, and allows humanitarian staff to operate safely, the UN will accelerate the delivery of food aid, health services, clean water and waste management, nutrition supplies, and shelter materials," it said.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
4 hours ago
- Business Standard
Blackstone-backed KRT gets Sebi approval to launch ₹4,800 cr REIT-IPO
Sattva Group and Blackstone-backed Knowledge Realty Trust (KRT) has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to launch its Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) public issue. The offering, expected to open in the first week of August, aims to raise ₹4,800 crore, making it one of the largest REIT IPOs in the country. KRT has already raised ₹1,400 crore in a pre-IPO placement last month. The company had filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi in March 2025. The company plans to use proceeds from the issue to reduce debt. "We plan to reduce our leverage by utilizing a significant portion of net proceeds from the fresh issue to repay certain indebtedness incurred by the Asset Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs)," the company stated in the DRHP. The company plans to reduce debt by 21 per cent using the funds from the IPO proceeds. "Our total borrowings as of September 30, 2024, were ₹19,948.29 crore. We expect our total debt on listing to be less than 21 per cent of our initial GAV at the time of listing of Units pursuant to the Issue," the company stated. The company currently owns over 46 million square feet of office space across 29 properties, primarily located in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. KRT's portfolio includes 30 office assets spread across major Indian cities. Notable assets in the portfolio include One BKC and One World Center in Mumbai, Knowledge City and Knowledge Park in Hyderabad, and Cessna Business Park and Sattva Softzone in Bengaluru. With a proposed fundraise of approximately ₹6,200 crore, Knowledge Realty Trust is poised to launch India's largest REIT IPO. The REIT reported a net operating income of ₹3,432 crore in FY24, underlining the scale and profitability of its rental-yielding commercial properties. Blackstone and Sattva Group, the two founding sponsors, will retain around 80 per cent ownership in the REIT post-listing. The sponsors have committed to a brand-neutral strategy for future expansion, aiming to grow KRT's portfolio through acquisitions. The REIT is expected to launch investor roadshows this week, according to a PTI report, with the price band for the IPO likely to be announced on August 30. Sattva Group, based in Bengaluru, has delivered over 74 million sq ft of real estate across commercial, residential, hospitality, and co-working segments, with an additional 75 million sq ft under development. Currently, India has four listed REITs — Brookfield India Real Estate Trust, Embassy Office Parks REIT, Mindspace Business Parks REIT, and Nexus Select Trust. Among them, Nexus is retail-focused, while the others primarily own rent-generating office spaces.
The Hindu
4 hours ago
- The Hindu
MEA ‘nearly lost the plot' on Indus Treaty negotiations, says former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) nearly 'lost the plot' over the Indus Water Treaty talks with Pakistan in 2016, as senior MEA officials entered into a tussle with the World Bank, before the issue was retrieved — the claim is made by former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, India-appointed Executive Director at the World Bank (2014-2017), in his latest book, which recounts for the first time the tensions between the Modi government and World Bank President Jim Kim over the Kishenganga hydropower project. The point of contention was whether the World Bank, which has a limited role in guiding any disputes or differences between India and Pakistan, would decide to appoint the 'court of arbitration' Pakistan had asked for, or a 'neutral expert', as India wanted. After his controversial first book about his unceremonious exit from the Union Finance Ministry, Mr. Garg has now taken aim at the MEA in his new book, No, Minister: Navigating Power, Politics and Bureaucracy with a Steely Resolve, where he says he was sidelined during the initial stages of the Indus Water Treaty negotiations in 2016. He also claims that he was told to 'keep off the matter', and only attend meetings to be led by India's Deputy Chief of Mission Taranjit Sandhu (later the Ambassador to the U.S. before he retired and joined politics). '[However], by the middle of November, the MEA team was getting nervous. It was not able to nudge the World Bank team in the direction it wanted, i.e., to appoint a neutral expert and began to sense that the Bank was tilting towards Pakistan,' Mr. Garg wrote, in the chapter titled 'Bringing Indus Waters Arbitration Back From the Brink'. At this point, the book claims that Mr. Jaishankar made a visit to Washington and asked Mr. Garg to take charge of matters. Mr. Garg accepted the request, but insisted that no MEA official join the discussions, and even turned back then MEA Joint Secretary Gopal Baglay (now India's High Commissioner to Australia) from the meeting with Mr. Kim, although he had travelled non-stop for 20 hours to reach Washington. According to Mr. Garg, it was his own intervention, in a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Kim, that eventually helped ensure a neutral expert, Ian Solomon, was appointed, after the World Bank accepted Pakistan's demand for a court of arbitration at The Hague. The MEA did not respond to a request for comments on Mr. Garg's claims. The Hindu also reached out to Mr. Sandhu and Mr. Baglay for a comment, and they did not respond to or deny the claims. In Washington, World Bank officials privy to the negotiations confirmed the tussle between the World Bank and the Indian government, but said they could not comment on whether it was Mr. Garg's meeting with the World Bank chief or other interventions that eventually changed the course of events. The World Bank first ruled that having a neutral expert and court together could lead to 'contradictory outcomes'. However, subsequently, it facilitated the setting up of both an expert as well as a Chairperson to the Court of Arbitration. India has refused to attend the proceedings in the Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Pakistan has maintained that it is working within the terms of the treaty, whereas India says the treaty does not allow such parallel dispute mechanisms. When asked by The Hindu, Mr. Garg said this should not have been an 'institutional turf battle', and that he did not want India's case to be 'compromised' even as the World Bank, the U.S. and the U.K. had gone ahead with appointing experts to take the Pakistan application for arbitration forward. Allowing Pakistan's diplomats to continue the process unchallenged would have an impact on other negotiations, he added. After the Pahalgam terror attacks in April this year, India has decided to 'suspend' the Indus Water Treaty, but some of the book's revelations are significant for future decisions on similar issues. The book recounts Pakistan's campaign against the Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower projects in Jammu-Kashmir; India's objections to the International Monetary Fund/World Bank funding of the Gulpur hydropower project in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir; and China's objections in 2010 to multilateral funding for a hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh, leading Mr. Garg to conclude that the government and the World Bank needed better communication between themselves. Mr. Garg also pointed out that Mr. Kim and Mr. Modi had a good relationship, and Mr. Kim's plan to fund schemes for 'stunted' or malnourished children had not gone down well with Mr. Modi. In Parliament this week, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development said that about 37% of children under five years registered on their tracker were found to be stunted. 'I believe India's approach of not fine-tuning its stance in line with World Bank policies has harmed its own interests more than serving it,' Mr. Garg, who moved to India as Economic Affairs Secretary after his tenure at the World Bank ended, said. Differences with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman led to his transfer as Secretary in the Union Ministry of Power in August 2019. He applied for voluntary retirement that same day, and retired after serving the mandatory notice period on October 31, 2019. (With inputs from Jacob Koshy and T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan in New Delhi.)
