The First Lady, Mama Rachel Ruto has urged for more financial support for nature-based solutions and a collaboration between science, policy, and business to harness the power of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship to drive transformative change and pursue environmental objectives.
The First Lady was speaking at the Science and Business Policy Forum side event that took place on the sidelines of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) Tuesday at United Nations Headquarters, Gigiri.
Nature-based solutions, including tree planting, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, ecosystem restoration, and green technologies, hold tremendous potential for addressing the interconnected environmental challenges we face, offering a pathway to mitigate climate change, conserve biodiversity, and achieve sustainable development.
Inger Andersen, Executive Director UNEP, highllighted the level of underfunding of nature-based solutions, which receive only USD 200 billion globally per year, less than a third of what is needed per year by 2030 to meet climate, biodiversity, and land degradation goals.
She emphasised that urgent policy change is needed to realign nature-negative finance flows as the best way to halt and reverse nature loss.
Mama Rachel Ruto urged the stakeholders present to pool resources together to finance nature-based solutions, implement Kenya’s ambitious tree-growing strategy, foster sustainable development, and scale climate change mitigation measures.
