3 Signs Momentum is Building For Business to Act On Nature

Nature was a major focus at Climate Week in New York City last month — from the World Biodiversity Summit to the Nature Hub and the Nest Climate Campus. All for good reason: Nature action must go hand in hand with climate action for the long-term stability of the planet’s health and the resilience of the global economy. Reversing nature and biodiversity loss cannot be achieved without tackling climate change, and vice versa.

Critical mass on the need for nature action has finally been reached by investors, companies and governments alike. This reckoning will be top-of-mind as world leaders and members of the business and nonprofit communities gather in Cali, Colombia, for the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP16) this week to discuss progress toward ambitious goals for protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems around the globe. These three takeaways from Climate Week show signs that momentum is building in the private sector to address nature and biodiversity loss alongside climate change.

1. The business case for nature action is clear

Like climate risk, the evidence is mounting up that nature is a material financial risk. While more than half of global gross domestic product — some $44 trillion in economic value generation — is moderately to heavily reliant on nature and its services, protecting nature could prevent a global GDP decline of $2.7 trillion annually by 2030. And businesses worldwide are increasingly being held accountable for their contributions to nature’s degradation – from 3M’s $10.3 billion settlement over its contamination of water systems, to the global opposition to JBS’ plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange due to deforestation linked to the company's cattle sourcing from Brazil. 

The result? Much of the discussion at Climate Week was no longer focused on the business case for nature action, but on how the private sector can address the escalating risks posed by the nature crisis.

2. There are growing resources to support private sector action

According to estimates, private-sector investments that harm nature amounted to at least $5 trillion in 2022. That's 140 times more than private funding for nature-based solutions. A report published during Climate Week seeks to help the private sector in righting this imbalance by providing a framework for redirecting financial flows in support of global biodiversity goals.

In another recent development, the Taskforce on Nature-related Related Financial Disclosures published guidance on how its recommendations map with other leading standards, such as the International Sustainability Standards Board, Global Reporting Initiative 10: Biodiversity 2024, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. The disclosure recommendations aim to help companies and investors better understand and report their nature-related impacts, dependencies, and opportunities to inform their nature strategies and spur action. 

3. More companies and investors are acting on nature

With an eye toward COP16, many organizations were on the ground in New York City showcasing the growth of their nature initiatives and previewing their plans for the upcoming biodiversity summit. Marking the momentum behind its disclosure recommendations released a year ago, the Taskforce on Nature-related Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) said it plans to announce the next cohort of early adopters at COP16. More than 440 organizations, representing over $6 trillion in market capitalization among publicly-listed companies and over $16 trillion in assets under management among asset owners and managers, are already early adopters to the TNFD framework.

Nature Action 100, the first global investor-led engagement initiative to address nature and biodiversity loss, also announced plans to reveal the results of the initiative’s first benchmark assessments of 100 companies’ progress toward key investor expectations on nature at COP16. Since kicking off direct engagement with companies following Climate Week last year, more than 230 institutional investors with nearly $30 trillion in assets under management or advice are now participating in Nature Action 100 to support greater corporate ambition and action on nature.

Business for Nature published a letter to government heads signed by over 180 businesses and financial institutions calling for renewed policy ambition to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at the COP15 summit and reverse nature loss this decade. The organization also posted a Countdown to COP16 infographic, illustrating the critical actions businesses and governments are taking to turn the tide on nature’s destruction. 

These important takeaways provide valuable insight into how the private sector is mobilizing to mitigate nature risk in tandem with climate risk ahead of COP16. And they signal why events like Climate Week and beyond will increasingly feature broader conversions about how the world can reach a climate-resilient, nature-positive, and water-secure future.