A new key biodiversity platform for cross sectoral collaboration
For its inaugural launch, World Biodiversity Summit will help define what world leaders and the private sector in biodiversity and climate action need to do in the medium and long term to achieve sustainable development and hinder further biodiversity loss, focusing on partnerships and investment mechanisms as levers of progress. World Biodiversity Summit is a platform for responding to accelerating biodiversity loss, by using the Paris Agreement as a framework to learn from, promoting relevant solutions, innovations, and leadership networks, strengthening nature restoration and conservation. Nature-based solutions will be highlighted, from specificecosystems to global possibilities.
SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS
26 September 2024
SECOND, New York, USA
Climate Week NYC
26 October 2024
MUSEO - Museo La Tertulia,
Cali, Colombia
alongside UNCBD COP16
Jessica Smith
Nature Lead, UNEP Finance Initiative
Jessica Smith has led on Nature at the UNEP Finance Initiative since 2020, encouraging rapid uptake of this theme amongst the banking, insurance and investment industries. She has led in setting up major initiatives such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and for finance sector engagement in the development and implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Jessica recently led an applied research project with the Biodiversity Credits Alliance and other partners to promote investment in Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities-managed land- and seascapes and is otherwise active in thought-leadership at the forefront of nature and finance. She has worked extensively to mobilise and evaluate nature-related finance, globally and across Africa. She holds degrees in environmental studies and business, development studies, and commerce and is a PhD researcher in development finance at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business.
