Development Banks Map Out How Infrastructure Investment Can Help Bring Nature Back

The note, Identifying Opportunities to Support Biodiversity Objectives Through MDB Operations, was launched at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP17 meeting in Yerevan, Armenia.

The world's leading multilateral development banks (MDBs) have published a joint briefing note explaining how development finance can support biodiversity conservation, restoration and enhancement. The publication shows how checks already used to assess environmental risks can help banks and their clients identify opportunities to improve conditions for nature. Its focus is on bringing biodiversity into project design and implementation so that development investments deliver measurable environmental benefits.

The note, Identifying Opportunities to Support Biodiversity Objectives Through MDB Operations, was launched at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity's COP17 meeting in Yerevan, Armenia. It draws on decades of experience in biodiversity risk management and environmental and social due diligence to set out practical approaches for development banks. These approaches connect the assessment of potential environmental damage with opportunities to conserve habitats, restore ecosystems and support nature recovery.

British International Investment, the UK's development finance institution, has endorsed the approach, becoming the first national development finance institution to do so. The initiative remains open to other institutions interested in joining the effort to bring biodiversity objectives into development finance. Wider participation could help extend these practices across more investments, sectors and countries.

Three routes to better biodiversity outcomes

The briefing identifies three complementary pathways, starting with shaping future project pipelines around opportunities to support biodiversity objectives. A second pathway uses environmental and social due diligence to identify positive outcomes for nature during project preparation and assessment. The third promotes approaches across landscapes and wider systems, helping investments address environmental challenges that extend beyond an individual project's boundaries.

Turning global commitments into measurable results

The publication supports the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, which calls for urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. That framework encourages financial institutions to align their portfolios with global biodiversity goals, creating a need for practical ways to assess investments and track their contribution. The note explains how existing project preparation processes and established measurement approaches, including habitat quality-hectares and the pressure-state-response framework, can help translate those commitments into measurable results.

Keeping environmental safeguards at the centre

Robust environmental and social standards remain the foundation of MDB operations, including requirements for no net loss of natural habitat and net biodiversity gains where critical habitat is affected. The proposed approaches build on those safeguards to support clients' ambitions, national biodiversity priorities and global goals, preserving the independence and rigour of environmental and social risk management. EBRD Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer Fatoumata Bouaré said cooperation between development banks can turn shared commitments into practical results, helping infrastructure, energy, transport and other investments deliver biodiversity benefits alongside sustainable development.