Financial sector ‘critical’ to stemming biodiversity loss, says Thérèse Coffey

Aviva insurance company recently donated £38m to help restore Britain’s temperate rainforests, such as this Atlantic oakwood in Taynish national nature reserve, Scotland. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

The financial sector must be encouraged to invest in nature conservation for the world to meet this decade’s UN biodiversity targets, the UK environment secretary has said.

Thérèse Coffey, speaking at an event at Lancaster House in London to mobilise private finance after Cop15, said the private sector had a critical role to play in meeting this decade’s deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems.