A coalition of countries could collaborate on a plan for regulation to push a nature positive financial agenda globally, the special envoy of the WWF International has said.
In considering the topic, countries such as the UK and Australia have created an opportunity for working together on an international initiative, Marco Lambertini said during a panel discussion at the Natural Capital Summit in London this week.
“It would be fantastic if a coalition of several countries could harmonise their conversation and develop a blueprint of nature-positive regulation,” Lambertini told the conference.
“What does it take to regulate market-based finance for nature in a way that guarantees integrity and impact?”
A number of jurisdictions globally are in the process of introducing financial regulations or guidelines related to nature and biodiversity, though there are limited efforts going on in terms of coordinating efforts.
Use of the term ‘nature positive’ has grown in recent years despite it lacking clear definition. Lambertini is convenor of the Nature Positive Initiative, a group of conservation organisations and businesses that launched in September with the aim of defining the phrase.
MISSING MEASUREMENT
Becoming more nature positive is seen as one of the overarching goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreement from the COP15 conference.
Lambertini said he was concerned about measuring progress towards the GBF goal of reversing nature loss by 2030.
“Where I am worried, something that we don’t talk enough about, is the ambition of the GBF on halting biodiversity loss … by the end of the decade.”
“The measurability of that global target is missing. There are so many methodologies, so many metrics, so many indexes. That’s where the confusion is.”
Clarity on measuring the state of nature is needed to show progress towards the GBF goal, he said.
Lambertini’s comments came despite the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures recommending 14 final disclosures on nature-related dependencies in September.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE ALIGNMENT
Neville Ash, director of UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), said private and public sector metrics underpinning the GBF needed to align.
“The more the public sector metrics are aligned with the metrics being used by private sector, the more coherent that entire system will be, enabling companies alongside governments to report their direct contributions to the GBF,” Ash said.
The Align project, of which UNEP-WCMC is one of several partners, is working to help harmonise nature-related metrics across sectors, he said.
“The most important finance target in the GBF is target 14,” he argued, referring to the objective to align public and private financial flows with the goals of the framework.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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