A landmark UN Agreement was reached on 19 December 2022 to protect biodiversity and create a shared future for all life on Earth. It is being called the 'Paris Agreement' of nature, likening it to similar agreement in 2015 which changed the world's direction on managing climate change.
Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth. It includes all the different types of living things and habitats. It is often referred to as the ‘web of life’. Our societies and economies depend on it.
It is rapidly rising up the corporate agenda as more and more companies understand the need to protect it. Here are some of the numbers for biodiversity now:
4
The number of goals included under the new landmark UN Agreement to protect biodiversity (i.e. the web of life on earth).
23
The number of targets under the new Agreement.
30 percent
The percentage of Earth’s land and water that 195 nations have now agreed to protect and restore by 2030, making it the ‘30x30 goal’.
$44 trillion
The amount generated by industries dependant on nature, according to the World Economic Forum.
$13 trillion/15 percent
Amount generated by industries highly dependent on nature, and the percentage of global GDP this represents.
$37 trillion/37 percent
Amount generated by industries moderately dependent on nature and the percentage of global GDP this represents.
50 percent
The agreed percentage reduction by 2030 of risk from pesticides.
50 percent
The agreed percentage reduction by 2030 of nutrients lost to the environment.
50 percent
The agreed percentage reduction by 2030 of new invasive species introduced and established.
30
The age of the Global Environmental Facility, which will now create a new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund through which rich nations will pay poor nations to support replacing biodiversity.
$30 billion
The amount rich countries have pledged to pay per year to poor countries to support biodiversity.
$200 billion
The amount of finance to be mobilised per year for biodiversity from all sources, domestic, international – both public and private.
$500 billion
The amount of subsidies harmful to biodiversity that will be eliminated per year by 2030.
$700 billion
The estimated annual financing gap that exists for the protection of natural systems.
8 billion
The number of humans on the planet now, more than double since 1970.
69 percent
The decline in animal population during that time.
75 percent
The percentage of land fundamentally altered during that time.
66 percent
The percentage of oceans negatively affected during that time.
80 percent
The percentage of lost wetlands during that time – these act as both habitats and ‘sinks’ to store carbon and stop it doing harm.
$3 trillion
The combined asset value of a group of investors which launched a campaign to pressure the companies they own to do more to fight the decline in biodiversity.
$650 million
The amount investors have committed to two so-called natural capital funds backed by HSBC Asset Management.
Zero
The pricing of natural assets by Wall Street for the past 150 years, according to David Craig, co-Chair of the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TFND).
Some announcements made during the Biodiversity COP
- The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) announced it would define ‘sustainability’ as ‘inextricably’ linked to nature in its standards.
- MSCI, the world’s largest ESG rating company, announced it would launch metrics for biodiversity similar to their environment, social and governance criteria.
- A group of institutional investors announced the formation of a new global engagement initiative to mobilise investors to drive urgent action on the nature-related risks and dependencies in the companies they own. Nature Action 100 will identify the private sector actions that need to be undertaken to protect and restore nature and will seek to catalyse these actions via investor-company engagements.
- A new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund will be established under the Global Environment Facility and will be open to financing from all sources to protect the most vulnerable countries and the most biodiverse.
A recap on COP15
COP stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’. It refers to the meetings by signatories to United Nations conventions.
The most famous COP is the ‘Climate COP’. This is the annual the summit attended by the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The most recent ‘Climate COP’ was COP27, hosted in November 2022 in Egypt.
‘Biodiversity COPs’ are meetings of the signatories to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. The fifteenth such meeting took place from 7-19 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada, hence the name ‘COP15’.
At COP15 governments from around the world came together to agree on a new set of goals to guide global action through 2030 to halt and reverse nature loss. The catastrophic loss of nature has not received the same media attention as climate change, but it is equally critical and must be resolved. It is impossible to effectively tackle either climate change or biodiversity loss without tackling both at the same time.
A quick look at biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth. It includes humans, animals, plants and all the other lifeforms which interact and depend on each other to survive. Everything depends on nature, including business. Biodiversity on Earth is under enormous risk, mostly due to human activity. The loss of biodiversity must be halted and reversed so humanity can survive and thrive.
What is the agreement called?
The agreement made at COP15 is called the Montreal-Kumning Global Biodiversity Framework (or the ‘Montreal-Kumning Agreement’ for short), after the cities in which it took place.
COP15 was originally supposed to take place in Kumning in China but was delayed due to COVID-19. In the end it was co-hosted by Montreal and Kumning.
What is in the Agreement?
The ‘Montreal-Kumning Agreement’ contains global goals and targets to protect and restore nature for current and future generations.
It aims to accelerate ambitious policies around the world and mobilise financing for biodiversity from all sources.
It is seen as significant because it is seen by some as being as important for nature as the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal was for climate. It also acknowledges the role of indigenous and local communities in achieving any nature-related goals.
What’s next?
Before the next COP in Saudi Arabia in 2024, all countries will have to prepare updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans as well as National Biodiversity Finance Strategies.
What they said
“At an institutional level, the train has left the station in any case because financial institutions are increasingly aware that nature risk is sitting on their balance sheets.”
Tony Goldner, Executive Director of the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures describing how a number of countries and financial firms are already moving toward mandatory disclosure with greater ambition than the final text suggests, where it says that countries should “encourage and enable” businesses to monitor, assess and disclose how they affect and are affected by biodiversity without making this process mandatory.
“The agreement reached at COP15 is a landmark deal to protect nature, restore ecosystems and keep our planet liveable. This is about our very survival: humanity has no future on a dead planet.”
Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal
Articles
Why is Wall Street so hot for biodiversity right now? (Bloomberg)
Cop15: Five key developments as significant biodiversity agreement reached: “Ultimately, major businesses will be expected to outline how they are contributing to a nature-positive world.” (Irish Times)
Find more on biodiversity and what it means for accountants at the Chartered Accountants Ireland Sustainability Centre resources page on Accounting for Nature.