Development finance in the land sector: tracking progress towards Paris alignment
Development finance institutions have a crucial role to help bring about the needed shift in global food systems and the land sector more specifically. They can support the implementation of more sustainable agricultural practices, the identification and mitigation of climate risks along the value chain of their clients (for example associated with induced deforestation), and they can set up de-risking facilities to enable private sector investments into emerging industries such as alternative proteins. DFIs can also engage with the public sector for building capacity and supporting more ambitious climate policies. Without much more concentrated action on mitigating climate change and building climate resilience, the advancement of other sustainable development goals such as ensuring global food security and ending poverty will not be possible. DFIs have developed high-level joint frameworks to align their operations with Paris goals are still working toward refining and implementing them. One important remaining gap for DFI is how they will engage and shift their land sector lending.
