Transcriber: Ola Królikowska Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
Dear colleagues and friends,
in Glasgow we sign the leaders declaration on forest and land use
to halt deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
Our goal is supported by 19.2 billion dollars in public and private funding.
We now need to map the challenges to reach this goal
and a pathway to overcome them.
As president of COP25 and former Minister of Environment of Chile,
I would like to thank WWF UK for organising this important event.
I share with you some remarks
on what it will take to turn these pledges to action.
The magnitude of the task is enormous,
and the resources required to invest in nature are very high.
In my opinion two key elements you need to make things happen.
Our political will and institutional instruments
that support implementation with the participation
and joint contribution of state and non-state actors.
Restoration, forestation
and land use conservation is something that none state can do alone.
This is especially true for developing countries like Chile
that contain huge natural capital, but also have important social needs.
You need public-private collaboration.
In Chile we understand this.
The government of President Piñera worked hard
not only to establish ambitious and robust commitments and goals
based on science in line with a 1.5 degree goal,
but also to develop institutional instruments to promote collaboration
and participation of non-state actors.
In April 2020, in the middle of the COVID pandemic,
we updated our NDC to expand voluntary commitment to integrate
one million hectares of landscape into restoration process by 2030,
prioritizing those with the greatest social,
economic and environmental vulnerability.
We know the challenges ahead of us are great
so securing the funding to achieve these ambitious goals is essential.
That is why in Glasgow, we present our long-term climate strategy,
committing Chile to cover 30 percent of its current funding gap
for biodiversity by 2030 and to eliminate this gap entirely by 2050.
To achieve this, we are working to develop institutional instruments
to mobilise both public and private funding toward protection of biodiversity.
An important tool for that are donations.
For these in July 2021,
we present a bill to the Congress to eliminate historic barriers
so that Chileans can donate to environmental causes.
They hold dear to encourage civil society to invest
and participate in funding nature.
We also create the First Trust Fund for Conservation in Chile.
After three years of intense work,
this first National Conservation Trust Fund
was created through an initiative of the Minister of Environment,
the fishing servicing, the forestry service and NGOs like CODEFF,
TNC, Océano, Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF
that will begin operation this 2022
and has already developed a special program for forests
and watersheds.
And is a key tool to help non-state actors collaboration
for restoration and stop land use degradation.
Another new funding mechanism we have already set in motion comes from
the bill we passed to reform our country's green tax on carbon emissions,
allowing companies for the first time to compensate their emissions
through nature based climate solution.
Implementing the first national carbon market,
which will allow us to mobilise more than two million dollars annually
towards climate action, especially through nature based solutions.
As the Dasgupta Report said: “Our economies aren’t external to nature”.
This is why in May of this year,
Chile’s Central Bank and our Ministry of Environment
met with Professor Dasgupta and committed to incorporate
natural capital accounting nationally.
So today, the Minister of Environment,
the Central Bank and the National Council of Innovation for Development
and the Finance Ministry are creating the Natural Capital Committee,
which will allow us the accounting for the contribution of natural capital
to the development of Chile.
Today, we know the true development can only be reached if we learn to live
in harmony with nature.
To do so, we need concrete policies and programmes and the determination
and collaboration to see them through.
Chile is committed.
Collaborate with us to turn pledges into action.
Thank you.