An Ecosystem Condition (EC) Protocol for standardising the measurement of ecosystem conditions across corporate reporting and biodiversity markets, with a similar format to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, aims to launch a draft version this year.
The EC Protocol, a document with around 12 chapters, will be hosted by an independent entity akin to a non-profit established in France, said Joshua Berger, CEO and founder of the Biodiversity Footprint Intelligence Company (BioInt).
A draft will launch at biodiversity conference COP16 in October in Colombia, aiming to lay the way for the release of the first official version in about two years, following a refinement process like that of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Berger told Carbon Pulse.
The protocol should help build bridges between corporate biodiversity accounting and biodiversity markets, through actions such as recommending the same metrics, he said.
The initiative will aim to enable the comparison of corporates’ biodiversity performance, seeking to provide clear guidance on biodiversity reporting “beyond already available general guidelines, recommendations, and regulatory requirements – which leave many questions unanswered”, Berger said.
It should ultimately showcase corporate commitments alongside positive impacts, he said. “The expectation is that it drives standardisation with regards to ecosystem condition measurement and accounting for biodiversity credits, and other similar instruments.”
“A number of credit schemes already use ecosystem condition metric but in inconsistent ways. For instance, Verra uses ecosystem condition to estimate the number of credits generated but has not defined exactly which specific metrics will be used.”
Confusion around metrics, and lack of standards, have been said to be among the primary barriers to scaling biodiversity markets.
The GHG Protocol, launched in 2001 by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, established a common international framework for greenhouse gas accounting to facilitate consistent accounting.
GOVERNANCE
Consulting firm BioInt is initially leading on the activities around the EC Protocol before the COP16 release, such as an online soft launch in June, but an independent board will decide the secretariat, Berger said.
During the consultation process, broad engagement with stakeholders around the world will help to advise on the protocol, which will not be linked to a specific tool, he said.
Berger is also senior advisor at CDC Biodiversity, which offers one of the leading biodiversity footprinting options in the Global Biodiversity Score, although many other companies such as Iceberg Data Lab are developing similar tools.
“The governance of the protocol will ensure it is independent from any tool developer. CDC Biodiversite, for instance, will not be involved in decisions,” Berger said.
“One of the goals is to drive standardisation of metrics, but there is no preference for any metric at inception. Criteria for scientifically robust and pragmatic metrics will be drawn and one or a few metrics for relevant components of ecosystem condition may emerge from that.”
The EC Protocol will collaborate with existing key initiatives and frameworks to try to gain consensus on ecosystem condition measurements without duplicating existing work.
It must provide guidance to corporates to align with existing frameworks such as those from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Global Reporting Initiative’s 101 biodiversity standard, the TNFD, and Science Based Targets Network, Berger said.
“Alignment with those frameworks is thus key and the governance will have to include them.”
The TNFD’s handling of ecosystems was one of the starting points that led to work on the protocol. It has a core disclosure metric on ecosystem condition, but it is only a ‘placeholder metric’ due to lack of consensus, Berger said.
The protocol will work closely with the TNFD to ensure it helps to inform the accounting for the taskforce’s core disclosure metric.
OBJECTIVES
The EC Protocol will confront very complex technical challenges, said Berger. “This will require deep technical expertise and innovation, as well as the capacity to build consensus among stakeholders.”
Its five objectives will be to:
- Propose a clear definition of ecosystem condition and related concepts, such as ecosystem extent, in a business context
- Propose a framework to differentiate responsibilities linked to the value chain boundaries or scopes
- Clarify ecosystem accounting rules for stocks
- Clarify the link between concepts such as ‘nature positive’, the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and corporate ecosystem condition accounting
- Test the compatibility of impact assessment tools against the standard
A webinar on the protocol will take place on June 19.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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