‘Strengthen — not weaken’: Big Business calls for policies that drive action on nature

Some of the world’s largest businesses and financial firms have urged governments to embrace more ambitious policies to halt and reverse nature loss this decade, as diplomats step up preparations for the next U.N. Biodiversity Summit in Colombia this autumn.

More than 130 firms — including household names such as Danone, Decathlon, H&M Group, Nestle, Unilever, Salesforce and Volvo — have signed a statement calling on governments to adopt and enforce nature policies that can accelerate corporate action to protect and restore nature this decade.

The appeal comes ahead of the U.N. COP16 Biodiversity Summit, set to take place in Cali in Colombia in late October. It will mark the first meeting of governments since they agreed to a string of new goals and targets designed to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030.

“With 100 days until the UN Biodiversity COP16 in Colombia, we stand at a pivotal moment,” the collective statement reads. “The window to build a thriving, nature-positive, net zero and equitable economy is rapidly closing. We can change this but only if the public and private sectors urgently scale and accelerate collective efforts to secure ambitious policies and decisive corporate action for nature.”

It adds that “we need governments’ immediate leadership to strengthen — not weaken — the policies, incentives and legislation that will drive the necessary business action to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030.”

At the COP15 Biodiversity Summit in Montreal in 2022, almost all governments — with the exception of the U.S., which is not a signatory to the U.N. Biodiversity Convention — agreed to a raft of nature goals for 2030, including pledges to increasing nature finance to developing nations to nearly $39 billion a year and provide official protected status to 30 percent of land and sea. Governments also agreed to phase out subsidies that are destructive to nature, and require large companies and financial institutions to monitor their risks, dependencies and impacts on nature.

At COP16 in Cali, all governments must present revised national biodiversity strategies and action plans that set out how they intend to embed the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework into national policy planning.

Rishi Kalra, executive director and CFO at food ingredients trader Ofi, said it was vital governments come forward with ambitious plans. “Every crop we grow or source is connected to nature, and we believe that business and financial actors must collaborate to understand the true cost of agriculture on nature and drive action to protect biodiversity and build natural capital in sourcing landscapes,” he said. “Ahead of COP16, we call on governments to implement robust regulations that inspire meaningful action and enable businesses to make better choices towards a nature-positive economy.”

The business statement, which has been convened by the Business for Nature coalition, sets out five broad recommendations for governments ahead of the COP16 Summit. These include making sure business and financial actors protect nature and restore degraded ecosystems, and ensuring the sustainable use of resources to reduce negative environmental impacts.

The businesses are also calling on governments to “value and embed” nature in decision-making and disclosure requirements; align all financial flows to support the transition to a nature-positive, net zero emission, and equitable economy; and adopt or strengthen ambitious global agreements to address key nature loss challenges.

In a separate report out July 16, Business for Nature has expanded on the five recommendations with 20 specific policy asks ahead of the summit, including calls for subsidy and tax reform, a ban on deep sea mining, the adoption of an ambitious Global Plastics Treaty, and the prohibition of land conversion in specific key protected areas.

The document also calls on policymakers to encourage and enable the widespread adoption of sustainable resource management plans by businesses, promote agroecological and regenerative farming models, and adopt mandatory water usage and water quality targets for industry.

“Businesses are uniting and calling on governments to provide the regulatory certainty they need to transform their operations and supply chains,” said Eva Zabey, CEO for Business for Nature. “Our policy asks show governments how they can make this a reality. Only through collective effort will we be able to drive the global systemic change needed for a nature-positive, net zero and equitable economy.”

Business for Nature said large firms were increasingly aware of the need to transform their operations and value chains to protect and restore nature, noting that nine businesses — including Decathlon, Holcim, GSK, Kering and Tetra Pak — had developed corporate nature strategies endorsed by its “It’s Now for Nature” campaign.

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This story first appeared on: BusinessGreen