President Vahagn Khachaturyan participated in the event “Biodiversity finance: the missing link for addressing non-economic loss and damage”

During his working visit to the Kingdom of Spain, President of the Republic Vahagn Khachaturyan participated in the side event “Biodiversity finance: the missing link for addressing non-economic loss and damage” and delivered opening remarks.

Distinguished guests,

I am pleased to address this high-level panel organized on the sidelines of the 4th Conference on Financing for Development. I would like to welcome the representatives of Armenia, Nepal, Colombia, Secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Green Climate Fund and International Union for Conservation of Nature this discussion and thank all participants who showed their interest in this important topic.

As the Living Planet Report 2024 highlights the wildlife population has declined by 73% between 1970 and 2020. This is an immense and irreversible loss of biodiversity, which, if not averted, will bring our world to a dangerous tipping point with catastrophic effects for nature, people and their livelihoods. Hence, it is the duty and the responsibility of the current generation to make all efforts to reverse the dangerous tide of biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and climate change.

As you know, Armenia is embarking on an important mission of hosting the Biodiversity COP17 next year and leading the efforts of international community towards global progress in biodiversity protection and sustainable use of the natural resources. We are keen to build on the success of the COP16 in Cali under the Presidency of Colombia and further advance the international cooperation on biodiversity protection a crucial aspect of which is sustainable finance. Therefore, this high-level discussion with open exchange of views and ideas related to the biodiversity finance, will be one of the starting points of that journey related to finance and will feed into the initiatives and action agenda of the COP17 Presidency.

So, I look forward to hearing from the esteemed panelists about their views and suggestions on the possible ways of empowering our societies for action and for the preservation of biological richness and diversity of our planet and most importantly on the possible solutions and approaches for ensuring sufficient and predictable biodiversity finance to address those challenges.

Hence, I wish you all an interesting discussion and thank you once again for being here with us.