BBNJ Finance Brief: The Special Fund as a Critical Financing Mechanism Under the BBNJ Agreement

IUCN key messages for the Special Fund for BBNJ are: 

• The financial mechanisms can support efficient implementation provided that the appropriate management measures for effective BBNJ implementation are identified and engagement with relevant IFBs is undertaken so as to ensure coherence and efficiency in execution, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) and enforcement.
• The design of the finance mechanism as well as the ultimate scale and operational effectiveness of the Special Fund will be key to enhanced capacity-sharing.
• Rapid ratification and robust implementation, including finance is key to delivering biodiversity and earth system benefits.
• The economic and ecological potential of ABNJ are vast, ocean accounting and blue natural capital assessments are some of the tools that can highlight these opportunities and help to develop investment cases.