COP15 KEY TAKEAWAYS

Billed as ‘the global deal for nature’ there was a lot riding on COP15. In the end it was not quite the ‘Paris moment for nature’ many dreamed of but marks an important step forward to build from.

As the gavel went down in Montreal on Monday the deal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 was struck and the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was agreed with its 23 targets and 4 goals spanning 196 participating countries, of which the USA is a notable exclusion.

Now governments, companies and communities need to figure out how they'll help make these commitments a reality.

There are some significant wins in the deal alongside some notable limitations. Largely, its success will come down to how national governments choose to implement the GBF, how finance is mobilised to support it, and how governments and businesses are held to account.

Reflecting on the deal and my time attending COP15 below I share my view on ‘3 wins’, ‘3 watch outs’ and the opportunity for business.

3 wins:

- The ’30 by 30’ target was agreed to protect and restore 30% of the Earth's land and water by 2030, while recognising the rights of indigenous people and local communities. This high profile target, united and divided, but with 100 countries already on board before COP negotiations began it was seen by many as central to the deal. While a step forward its success will depend on whether it is properly implemented and resourced and does so with respect to equitable value and rights for Indigenous People and communities. This is no small challenge and rhetoric in the past has often not flowed through to reality on the ground.

-   Requirement for financial institutions and large businesses to assess and publicly disclose their impacts, risks and dependencies on nature was agreed. This is really significant as it will drive visibility and accountability of business impacts on nature, and sends a strong policy signal to the private sector that it will be held to account for its nature impacts. Getting it across the line was no small feat and owes much to the work of Business for Nature and the #makeitmandatory campaign.

-   Positive alignment of public and private financial flows with the GBK including the phasing out and reform by 2030 of $500bn per annum in government subsidies harmful to nature. There is currently $1.8bn govt subsidies per annum that negatively impact biodiversity, so this is an important step forward. The deal also directs countries to allocate $200 billion per year for biodiversity initiatives from both public and private sectors, though of course it will be a question now of if money is mobilised.

3 watch outs:

-       No numerical target agreed to reduce the unsustainable footprint of consumption and production globally. This is key because if we don’t transform how and how much we consume and produce, we simply won’t meet our biodiversity or climate targets, regardless of percentages of the Earth protected.

-       Insufficient resourcing and finance for the Global South. The conference president, Huang Runqiu, caused some controversy when sealing the final deal, by bringing down the official gavel despite the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) refusing to support it, though they have subsequently agreed. A key concern of many African countries and countries across the Global South is fair and sufficient financing of these goals, particularly as they are home to most of the areas of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning on which this deal depends.

-       Weak language in the deal in critical areas such as the protection of intact ecosystems and tackling unsustainable production and consumption means that a lot rests on how national governments choose to interpret and implement the GBD. As WWF notes “the agreement’s mission to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 has the right level of ambition, but if we add up the goals and targets they alone aren’t enough to achieve this.”

The opportunity for business:

There was a record level of financial and business engagement at COP15 which is going to be needed to help close the $700bn a year financing gap for nature. As we see a surge in investment and monetisation of nature and biodiversity, the question isn’t how to ‘attract’ business and financial interest in nature (it’s already there), it’s how we use this opportunity to meaningfully ‘reset’ the relationship between finance/business and nature. How we ensure decisions made in board rooms and on balance sheets deliver biodiversity and social benefits on the ground and with fair value, rights and consideration of Indigenous Peoples and local communities that steward 80% of Earth’s biodiversity.

With this in mind here are 5 key recommendations for business:

1.  Create an integrated net zero and nature positive strategy rather than looking at climate and biodiversity in separate and siloed ways. They are inherently interdependent and support each other.

2. Start to understand, assess and reduce your impacts on nature as an opportunity to also build business resilience and reduce your costs and risks. There is now the clear policy signal that business and financial institutions will be held to account for their nature impacts and so now is the time begin.

3. Shift from looking at nature as a risk to also seeing as an opportunity for value creation and connection. This needs to be considered in the context of your own business and can span opportunities to create new products and services that support the shift to a nature positive future; transformation towards regenerative and circular supply chains and use of materials and crops; to educating and engaging employees, customers and communities in ways that help better connect them to your and their nature and climate journey.

4. Invest in nature-based solutions aligned to your business as a powerful way to create biodiversity, carbon, people and business benefits. This requires the right strategy, partners, impact monitoring and patient expectations of returns. This isn’t just the realm of big business, and can tangibly help protect and restore biodiversity in ways that also support your business, climate goals and people.

5. Don’t wait for the perfect metrics, biodiversity data and regulatory frameworks to get started. It’s a learning journey and takes time to progress, so begin!

To discuss a nature positive approach for your business, get in touch at hello@wonderoom.co

I leave you with a few of our favourite quotes from my time at COP15…

“This is not a managerial task. There is no simple managerial solution to creating the nature markets we want. We need to bridge the on the ground reality with the balance sheets of global banks and with how businesses meaningful engage through their supply chains. We need to span culture, ethics, data and finance in new ways.” — Simon Zadek

“Biodiversity is a big data problem - it’s noisy, vast and complex. Collecting reliable on the ground data calls for radical collaboration. Data becomes a key communication tool and needs to be meaningful to people on the ground and local communities as well as financial decision makers driving investment.” Kat Bruce

“We have a spiritual connection to our land. Without our land we are nothing. We use indigenous sources of data collection. The land is where we get our water, food, and energy from and we look at land as a collective resource. For us as village people, nature is a life-giving thing not a money giving thing. Land for us is life, whereas for many other people land is money. Which makes it hard for us to trust and reconcile the process.” - Musonda Kapena

The moving story of “cookie” the stump of a 750 year old Canadian fir tree which you can read here.

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