A newly-launched project aims at accelerating and scaling nature-positive efforts by businesses, financial institutions, and European governments.
The initiative is called ‘A-Track’ and was launched on Monday for running over a four-year period. Valued €11-million, it is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme with co-funding from UK Research and Innovation and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Capital Coalition are among the partners of the project.
By bringing together existing tools and approaches, A-Track seeks to promote the integration of biodiversity in corporate decision-making, as well as in financial and national policies.
“Businesses, financial institutions, and governments across Europe are increasingly recognising that they depend on nature and that action for nature can help them to build resilience, manage risks, and increase value,” the project’s website said.
“Over the last decade, new guidance, tools, methods, data, and training materials have been developed to support measuring impacts and dependencies on nature and integrating this knowledge into decision making.”
The initiative will gather experts in the measurement and valuation of biodiversity, aiming to provide information and data, foster innovation in the financial sector that contributes to nature positive outcomes, promote the consideration of ecosystem services in life cycle assessment for products and organisations, bolster the adoption and scaling of sustainable business models, and mainstream natural capital assessment and accounting.
“Organisations often struggle to navigate the complexities of nature and the related risks and opportunities,” A-Track’s website said.
“Understanding what tools to use or what actions should be taken can be overwhelming”.
Mentioned as a key target under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), corporate nature-related financial risk assessments are climbing the investors’ agenda.
Furthermore, companies are increasingly adopting frameworks such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) to assess their dependencies, impacts, and risks.
Last month, an assessment by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) showed that many EU countries are lagging behind in identifying national institutions tasked with reporting on the number of companies that disclose their biodiversity-related risks, dependencies, and impacts.
During a webinar in April, the director for biodiversity at the EU Commission, Humberto Delgado Rosa, highlighted that improving the measurement of risks and impacts on nature is crucial to achieving the 2030 biodiversity strategy under the European Green Deal.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter **
