Bemari

I spent the back end of last week hanging around the ocean talks at #COP16 my main business takeaways below… 🪸 There’s only one ocean!🪸 Sounds basic, but many sessions have hammered home that the ocean is a global, interconnected system. Businesses must remember that ALL localised marine impacts are contributing to the abysmal state of our ocean. 🔵 E.g. 80% of oceanic plastic pollution starts as land-based localised pollution, then is transported via rivers to the sea. Ocean currents then transport this pollution around the globe. 🪸 Healthy oceans are more profitable than distressed oceans🪸 Planet Tracker's research on commercial tuna fishing found: 🔵 Commercial fisheries had the highest profits when tuna were fished in the FAO areas with the most stable tuna populations. This was due to efficiencies in operational costs. More fish 🟰  less time required catching fish. 🔵By 2050, projected climate change could reduce commercial tuna catch in Indonesian waters by <30% 😬 😬 This would near wipe out the industry’s profits. 🪸 Stronger ocean governance is critical for business🪸 All businesses rely on the marine environment and thus the current systemic mismanagement of our ocean is business risk. Yet many non-seafood businesses still struggle to understand their dependencies (and impacts). Here are some examples: 🔵90+% of internationally, traded goods are transported via shipping 🔵99% of all intercontinental internet traffic goes through submarine cables 🔵36% of the global population rely on fish for food security. If you work with businesses in China or Japan there is no doubt workers in your supply chain depend on fish to survive. If you want to learn more about how businesses impact marine resources download Bemari's free Day Zero toolkit (link in comments)

Currently at #COP16 and the Day 1 & 2 already lots to think about, below are my highlights… 🌎 What’s your business’ ecocide legislation readiness? 🌎 The above question was posed in the session led by Stop Ecocide International. Also discussed was the need to view the above like a health & safety law NOT some sort of ‘woke’, ‘leftist’ environmental law…  “There is no business on a dead Earth” With a 73% decline in biodiversity in the last 50 years, it increasingly feels more radical NOT to have a law preventing ecocide, than continuing with the current radical act of destroying the natural system in which all business depends on. There is growing (inter)national support for the law, with draft wording being presented to the International Criminal Court this year. 🌏 What’s the ‘nature positive’ business’ case for biodiversity credits? 🌏 I’m still not convinced businesses understand the role of biodiversity credits: (at least in my view) they’re not a mechanism for offsetting your business’ nature impacts or enabling business as usual. A theme running through the talks has been that business’ need to focus on outcomes: halting and reversing their contributions to biodiversity loss across their value chain. In my view this is where businesses should focus their energy and then if they want to then use a biodiversity credits on top of their impact reduction strategy that’s a different use case. 🌍 How can the business community support an ecologically just energy transition? 🌍 Nickel is now the #1 driver of deforestation in Indonesia - far ahead of palm oil. Deep sea mining is being proposed in Norway which, if permitted and proliferated, has the potential to reduce the ocean’s capacity to regulate climate change.  What’s driving these destructive mining practices? Primarily critical minerals to power the two prongs of 4th industrial revolution: rapid decarbonisation and digitalisation. Climate change is now the #1 driver of biodiversity loss - there is no denying the need for an energy transition however more needs to be done - at pace - to protect critical ecosystems from the mining required for renewables. We need to remember that renewable energy isn’t without serious environmental costs and thus we still need to conserve energy usage, even when our value chains are powered by renewables. What can businesses do to reduce their contribution?  💎 Support ecologically (& socially) defined no mining zones.  💎 Support responsible mining practices which includes accepting that these minerals may cost more.  💎Reduce your consumption of energy across your supply chain.  💎Reduce your consumption for digital products across your supply chain, as this further reduces pressures on critical mineral supply chains. Thank you to Stop Ecocide International & Olivia Lazard for these great sessions

Day 1 #cop16. Opening messages and some takes ways 🌍Building capacity and understanding of nature impacts and dependencies is critical across all business levels, and C Suite in particular - 85% companies are at risk due to nature risks and dependencies - only 2 % of companies have capacity and skills at the c suite level 🍀Nature positive by 2030 is an ambitious and important goal that governments and private sector needs to get behind. - Majority of nature impacts (up to 95%) are in supply chains of organisations - this is a business critical area to address, taking action on nature is not about “saving the planet” - No individual business can be nature positive - it is a state of nature that the business should be contributing to, and not a label or goal one organisation can achieve. Refer to Nature Positive Initiative for definitions 📍Understanding where the impacts and dependencies are across the value chain is the first and crucial step - ENCORE tool is used by governments and businesses alike to do this. https://lnkd.in/eNrienJp ⚖️There are always trade offs when it comes to nature and business. Reduction of consumption of materials, energy, resources is crucial - be that renewable energy, green materials or digital use. Everything still has an impact - and often as we substitute one thing for another, the impacts shift (eg paperless to digital shifts pressure from trees to water and deforestation for mining). 🤝International collaboration and legislation plays a huge role in realigning the incentives and levelling the baseline. Businesses have global supply chains and impacts - harmonisation is critical in ensuring that the impacts do not just shift to where the laws are more relaxed. 💸The role of biodiversity credits on the nature positive journey is still to be refined. Some interesting initiatives in Colombia (Terrasos) that work on the premise of applying credits within the same watershed and same habitats - as opposed to for example, a tech company with supply chains (ie nature impacts) in China buying biodiversity credits restoring forests in the U.K. 1 ha of habitats in both of those locations are completely different! Biodiversity credits as a nature financing mechanism is a really important part of the solution but only when it is applied within the mitigation hierarchy. 📚Negotiations on the draft text have began - it won’t be easy! Look forward to day 2!