Building an EU biodiversity financing indicator

The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 states that "at least €20 billion a year should be unlocked for spending on nature" through mobilising private and public funding at national and EU level. This report assesses the feasibility of building an indicator to monitor progress towards this commitment. A proposal for an annual indicator is presented, focusing on biodiversity-related finance mobilised through EU funds and instruments, which is tracked in a broadly consistent way. It includes three components: financing from EU budget funds, Member State co-financing, and private and public financing mobilised through InvestEU, the most important EU repayable support instrument. While the proposed EU biodiversity financing indicator is very simple, includes some approximations and has a limited scope, it would provide aggregate information on financing from different sources, which all contribute to EU biodiversity objectives. Thus, it could help monitor progress towards EU financing targets, in complement to the regular monitoring of biodiversity mainstreaming in the EU budget. The first calculation of the indicator over 2021-2027 suggests significant financing gaps in 2024 and the following years.