Businesses must be compelled to reveal their impact on nature, more than 300 companies said in an open letter to world leaders published yesterday, ahead of crunch UN negotiations to halt catastrophic biodiversity loss.
Consumer goods group Unilever PLC, furniture maker IKEA and India’s Tata Steel Ltd were among a slew of high-profile corporations calling for stricter measures to impel firms to act, amid growing alarm over the devastation being wrought upon the natural world.
‘ACT NOW’
“We need governments globally to transform the rules of the economic game and require businesses to act now,” the Business for Nature coalition said.
It said its open letter had been signed by about 330 companies with combined revenues of more than US$1.5 trillion. International efforts to protect the world’s natural life support systems — including air, food and water — are set to conclude in Canada in December. Negotiators are hammering out a global framework to “live in harmony with nature” by 2050, with key benchmarks in 2030.
While businesses are beginning to report on their carbon emissions and climate impacts — albeit with some facing accusations of “greenwashing” — few firms give details on biodiversity.
The businesses that signed on to the statement said they wanted clarity from policymakers.
“This statement shows the extensive support from major businesses for an ambitious global deal for nature, with clear goals to drive collective business and finance action,” Roche Holdings AG vice chairman Andre Hoffmann said. “The political certainty will accelerate the necessary changes to our business models. We stand ready to do everything in our power to shift to a society where nature, people and business thrive.”
In March, a report by central banks found that financial institutions and businesses were underestimating the risks of biodiversity loss and destroying the natural assets they depend on.
COMMITMENTS
The new statement calls on heads of state to sign up to a target of mandatory requirements for large firms to assess and disclose their impacts and dependency on biodiversity by the end of this decade.
The task “won’t be easy, but it must happen” the firms said, urging measures to ensure that the UN targets aim to reduce negative impacts and encourage positive ones.
“The current rate of global economic activity is more than the planet can cope with,” Aviva Investors chief responsible investment officer Steve Waygood said. “If nature was a current account, then we would be heavily overdrawn. This is bad for the environment and bad for long-term growth.”
Many hope the UN deal, when finalized, would be as ambitious in its goals to protect life on Earth as the Paris Agreement was for climate change — even if the US is not a party to UN efforts to conserve nature.
One landmark proposal on the table is the protection of 30 percent of wild land and oceans by 2030.
Another key focus of negotiations is harmful subsidies for things such as fossil fuels, agriculture and fishing that can result in environmental destruction and encourage unsustainable levels of production and consumption.
These amount to as much as US$1.8 trillion every year, or 2 percent of global GDP, Business for Nature has estimated.
The world failed to meet almost all of the previous set of targets on nature in the decade to 2020.
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