A collective of more than 150 companies and associations has called on the French government to make the regeneration of nature the focal point of its laws regarding development, in a column in Le Monde published Tuesday.
The group, including Axa Climate, telecom company Bouygues, and renewable energy firm Amarenco, wrote the column in the wake of a recent law passed in the French parliament on July 22 relating to the country’s green industrial strategy, and texts still under discussion on this linked to agriculture, energy, and climate.
“It seems crucial to recall … that the restoration of nature has had great difficulty in gaining the support it deserves,” the column in the newspaper states in French.
If economic activities can lead to a degradation of natural capital, this reciprocally affects the performance of these same activities, the article continued.
This principle reminds us that it is essential to integrate nature into all of our decisions, it added.
There has been a push from some corporates that urge legislators to enact regulation to force the sector to integrate nature in supply chains, notably in the wake of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) signed last year, and the commitment across nearly 200 nations to protect and restore 30% of the world’s nature by 2030.
Work being done by voluntary standards and guidance for private companies, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), means that soon there will be clear guidelines for corporate activity in relation to nature impact.
In the UK, there is already legislation due to come in before the end of the year that will oblige developers on land to account for their nature impact, ensuring that work is nature positive.
The calls from the French corporate sector seem to have a similar tone, and will likely put some pressure on legislators to act.
France and the UK together outlined a plan to develop a biodiversity crediting market at a recent summit held in Paris.
By Roy Manuell – roy@carbon-pulse.com
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