Some 132 businesses and financial institutions with combined annual revenues of $1.1 trillion have called for the governments of the world to strengthen their nature policies in the build-up to biodiversity conference COP16.
Governments must ensure businesses and financial actors protect nature and restore degraded ecosystems, they said in a Tuesday statement led by the Business for Nature Campaign.
“The transformation [of] the private sector will only happen at the scale and speed necessary if governments urgently adopt and implement ambitious policies that create the right enabling regulatory environment,” said Owen Bethell, environmental impact lead of global public affairs at signatory Nestle.
“This will unlock business action and investment and create a level playing field,” he told Carbon Pulse.
The call comes over 18 months after the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15 in Montreal, as businesses asked governments to move faster on nature policy before the COP16 conference begins in Cali, Colombia in just under 100 days.
Nestle, Holcim, Volvo, Amundi Asset Management, and Axa Climate were among the signatories, who had five key recommendations:
- Ensure businesses protect nature
- Manage resources sustainably
- Embed nature in disclosures
- Align financial flows towards nature positive
- Strengthen global agreements
The recommendations could help galvanise opportunities, while establishing a more enabling environment for business action, they said.
NESTLE WANTS FARMING INCENTIVES
Nestle needs governments to urgently establish a strong enabling environment for corporate nature action through better policies, such as through incentives for a just transition for farming, Bethell said.
The Switzerland-based food giant takes an integrated approach to climate and nature through practices such as supporting farmers in implementing regenerative agriculture practices, he said.
By 2025, Nestle has targeted 20% of key ingredients coming from regenerative agriculture, investing CHF 1.2 billion ($1.3 bln) in the practice by the end of 2025, and a deforestation-free supply chain across the most at-risk products.
As the company does not invest in carbon credits, it is unlikely it will do so in biodiversity credits, but it will continue to monitor developments in the area, he said.
“Biodiversity credits outside our value chain are not the focus for Nestle given our land-based supply chain – where we can deliver a much greater impact.”
“Our commitment to source 50% of our key ingredients from regenerative agriculture by 2030 could have a transformative affect across millions of hectares of farmland globally, for example.”
Across Nestle’s climate change, forests, and water disclosures to CDP it received scores of ‘A minus’, ‘B’, and ‘B’ respectively last year.
However, its Nigerian, Indian, and Malaysian arms all received ‘F’ scores that year across all three categories after not responding, according to CDP.
TWENTY MORE ACTIONS
Business for Nature also set out 20 actions for the recommendations in an accompanying policy guide, which has not been formally backed by the 132 businesses.
These actions included mandatory nature-related disclosures, channelling 30% of international climate finance to nature-based solutions by 2025, and supporting a deep-sea mining moratorium.
All actions should focus on the views of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, youths, and women, it said.
“Businesses are uniting and calling on governments to provide the regulatory certainty they need to transform their operations and supply chains,” said Eva Zabey, CEO of Business for Nature.
“Our policy asks show governments how they can make this a reality. Only through collective effort will we be able to drive the global systemic change needed for a nature positive, net zero, and equitable economy,” said Zabey.
Four more business have had their nature positive strategies approved by the group since May, bringing the total number of plans it has accepted to nine.
These plans must meet the criteria of the campaign for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound targets.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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