Sida at the UN Biodiversity Conference COP17

During COP17, taking place from 19 to 30 October, Sida will work together with the Embassy of Sweden in Yerevan to highlight both Swedish experiences and the results achieved through Swedish development cooperation. Key topics include nature-based solutions, circular economy, women’s leadership, and increased financing for nature.

In 2025, Sida’s funding for biodiversity amounted to SEK 1.73 billion. This represents a decrease of SEK 540 million, or 23.8 percent, compared with 2024.

“The decrease follows an international trend among donors and is partly due to reduced allocations to strategies with environmental objectives, and partly because environmental issues are less explicitly stated in the reform agenda compared with previous steering, which placed a greater emphasis on biodiversity,” says Titta Lassila, Senior Policy Specialist for Climate and Environment.

The largest targeted contributions were implemented by UNDP, SEI, and CGIAR (the global partnership for agricultural research). Geographically, the main recipient countries were Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mozambique.

Sida’s biodiversity support also contributes significantly to climate action. More than 95 percent of biodiversity-related funding had climate mitigation, climate adaptation, or both as objectives. Of Sida’s total climate finance in 2025, 43 percent integrated biodiversity objectives. Gender equality was integrated into 68 percent of biodiversity contributions.

Sida and the Embassy of Sweden in Yerevan will host a number of panel discussions during COP17. One session will explore how a circular economy can help reduce pressure on nature.

Panelists will discuss how the reuse and recycling of materials and nutrients reduce the need to extract new natural resources, and how a circular economy benefits both biodiversity and climate. The discussion will be moderated by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and several of Sida’s partner organisations will participate.

The discussion together with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), will focus on nature-based solutions and their benefits for people, wildlife, and ecosystems. One example is the creation of wetlands that naturally purify water and provide flood protection, instead of relying solely on conventional wastewater treatment infrastructure.

The World Bank and Armenia’s Ministry of Environment will also host a discussion on ecosystem restoration and how conservation efforts can create green jobs and sustainable livelihoods. Kvinna till Kvinna’s event will focus on how women’s leadership contributes to more inclusive and accountable environmental governance, greater resilience to climate change, and improved security.

The Embassy of Sweden in Yerevan will also convene key partners to discuss how they can jointly increase investments in nature-based solutions.

Each year, Sida reports its biodiversity financing as part of Sweden’s contribution to reporting under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

“Sida’s main focus at COP17 is capacity development and cooperation to support the evidence-based, transparent, and inclusive implementation of the global framework, as well as mobilizing resources from both public and private sources. Decisions at COP must recognise that climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are three major and interconnected global challenges that need to be addressed together,” says Titta Lassila.

One of the major issues at COP17 is how to mobilise more funding for nature and ecosystems. According to BloombergNEF, the global biodiversity financing gap is estimated at USD 1317 billion per year.