The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has launched guidance to help insurers and long-term savings providers become ‘nature positive’ in helping tackle the decline in the UK’s nature and biodiversity.
The guidelines range from identifying best practices, identifying impact areas, and establishing internal workshops or informational sessions.
“Nature loss is one of the most crucial issues facing our planet. Its shocking decline not only threatens life but will harm businesses and prevent economic growth,” said Hannah Gurga, the ABI’s director general.
“Yet many businesses have not found it easy to assess their reliance on nature, or to recognise its importance to their business strategies. Our guide will enable our members to better understand this issue, the risks and opportunities it poses to them and their customers, so that they are truly ‘nature positive’.”
It is estimated that in the UK, around 25% of mammals are at risk of extinction, with 84% of rivers in poor ecological health and the country ranks in the bottom 10% of countries for biodiversity.
The guide to action on nature focuses on four main areas for insurers:
- Identifying external organisations, tools, and best practice examples for expertise and guidance
- Developing a heatmap as an initial estimation of possible impacts and identifying focus areas
- Learn from best practice form ‘early movers’ in the sector
- Setting up internal working groups within firms, leading the agreement of guiding principles, including governance and accountability
The association urges action, pointing to the economic hit of not doing so.
The body cites research which estimates that half of global GDP, or $44 trillion, is highly-to-moderately dependent on nature, as well as overwhelming public support for protecting nature.
ABI also argues that carbon credits and offsets must inevitably incorporate nature, given that biodiversity goals are intertwined with those of net zero and underlined it will provide support to insurers on how to best take the next steps.
“We will support our members, through collaboration and sharing best practice, consumer advice on ‘nature positive’ behaviours, and how the sector’s fraud tackling expertise can help address environmental crime, like illegal deforestation,” the association said in a release.
ABI’s guide also calls for the government to provide a strong lead to place nature and the centre of climate adaptation, which will help firms plan their strategies.
The UK is making moves to help inform businesses on how to best deal with nature and biodiversity across their value chains.
A recent interview with the emergent UK Business Biodiversity Forum (UKBBF) suggested that the country is among the leaders across developed economies in terms of taking steps to deal with private-sector impact.
By Roy Manuell – roy@carbon-pulse.com
*** Click here to sign up to our weekly biodiversity newsletter ***
