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    • Environment

    Where do efforts stand on a nature-based finance standard?

    The climate agenda has a "net-zero" target but biodiversity doesn't yet have a global goal to limit nature loss or standards to help organizations assess, address and report on their impacts. This, however, could be a pivotal year for biodiversity.

    By Adva Saldinger // 12 July 2022
    Employees gather shredded plastics at a factory outside of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Photo by: IMF / CC BY-NC-ND

    The climate change agenda has a global goal; a growing set of targets and metrics as well as the lofty “net-zero” commitment catchphrase, but protection of nature and biodiversity has lagged.

    Still, momentum is beginning to grow around a worldwide objective for nature, and drawing from climate lessons, global organizations, governments, and advocates are now working to create a comparable system and metrics.

    Biodiversity advocates hope that the “nature positive” slogan will be the equivalent of “net-zero” for limiting carbon emissions. They also hope a major conference later this year will bring agreement on protecting the environment akin to the Paris Agreement, in which countries agreed to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    In the past few years, particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a greater focus on nature and biodiversity, said Elizabeth Mrema, executive secretary at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. What’s also come along with that is a growing recognition of biodiversity, or nature loss as a business or economic risk, Mrema told Devex recently.

    A 2020 World Economic Forum report found that half of the world’s gross domestic product is dependent on nature, which paints a clear picture of what’s at stake for the world and for companies if nature is damaged, Mrema told Devex in May.

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    Companies that don’t limit activities that harm nature and whose practices support deforestation or other destruction will lose out on potential market share and accept potential risks, but preserving and rebuilding biodiversity also presents them with a business opportunity, she said.

    “Climate and nature are now considered risks to the economy,” Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, told Devex at Davos 2022, where protection of nature was more visible on the agenda than in previous years.

    Without the “watershed” Paris climate agreement and net-zero targets, it would be difficult to measure progress or have any accountability around climate action. Nature needs the same sort of time bound, measurable goals and metrics that help companies determine where they stand and how they might make progress, Lambertini said.

    “That’s why we are advocating for this nature-positive global goal — a global goal that can tell companies they have to look at their operations and their supply chains and make sure … they are generating a net-zero loss of nature or even better a net-positive gain. That needs to be codified now,” he added.

    That moment may come later this year at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, which after numerous delays due to COVID-19 will be held from Dec. 5-17 in Montreal, Canada. The conference, which was moved from China due to its strict COVID-19 policies, will convene governments to seek common ground on a new set of goals about nature for the next decade.

    Lambertini hopes the meeting will clinch agreement that sets clear global goals for nature, a set of targets to deliver that mission, and a financial mechanism to support low- and middle-income economies to meet global goals, he said.

    While biodiversity challenges mount, the conversation around nature is changing, Mrema said. Once thought to be the purview of governments, the private sector is increasingly engaged and wants guidance, she said.

    One key effort in this area is the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, modeled after the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, which developed an increasingly used framework that helps companies and other organizations disclose climate-related risks and opportunities.

    “The strategy we took under the TNFD was one to avoid bringing on board, bringing on the table, a completely different framework, because then the immediate response from the private sector would have been pushback,” Mrema, who is a co-chair of the task force, told Devex, adding that they have built on the work of the TCFD.

    The TNFD has 34 members responsible for developing the framework, a knowledge management hub of experts responsible for ensuring it is science based, and a broader forum of about 400 organizations sharing best practices.

    Just a few weeks ago, the TNFD released the second draft version of its framework, which includes its approach to metrics and additional information about pilot testing for market participants. The first version has already received more than 500 contributions of feedback and the TNFD hopes for more as new drafts are issued and pilot tests continue. Final recommendations are expected by September 2023.

    “The private sector was waiting for this framework,” Mrema said. “Our conversation here is to invite these private sector companies to actually help us pilot test the draft framework.”

    The task force also plans to help companies with capacity building, training, and awareness as it considers nature in a new way. It is developing a LEAP — Locate Evaluate Assess Prepare — assessment to help companies incorporate location-based risks in decision-making and improve disclosure.

    The TNFD wants to make it easier for companies by building on existing recommendations and capitalizing on data and metrics that companies already collect to streamline efforts and avoid additional workload, Mrema said.

    The ultimate goal is “mainstreaming nature in their operations,” she added.

    But she is realistic. Mrema knows that not every company will move at the same pace.  

    She wants to establish “how best we can reach out for companies to really take a step back and think through if I don’t go with this momentum, with this direction, what impact will it have in my operations? That’s what will bring them to see the benefits of the framework in the future or not.”

    More reading:

    ► Nature is one of the smartest investments

    ► Can 'nature-based solutions' be more than a buzzword?

    ► Opinion: We must reset our relationship with nature to avoid pandemics

    • Environment & Natural Resources
    • Trade & Policy
    • Private Sector
    • Convention on Biological Diversity
    Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).

    About the author

    • Adva Saldinger

      Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal

      Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.

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