Business and COP15: Beyond Target 15

As #COP15 is well underway and ahead of the final outcomes, the Business for Nature Business Guide is great background on the Convention on Biological Diversity and how COP15 and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will affect #business.

Two targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework most mentioned are:

• Target 3 - protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 to aid nature recovery and
• Target 15 - potential mandatory requirements for business and finance to assess and disclose impacts and dependencies on biodiversity

But what other targets are there and how might they affect business? Here is a snapshot of three further targets, potential effects, and a selection of suggested questions for business to consider.

🏭 Target 7: Pollution

"Reduce pollution from all sources to levels that are not harmful to biodiversity."

Potential effect on business: Additional scrutiny and requirements on businesses that produce emissions, discharges to water and possibly waste.

Suggested questions for business to consider:

• Do you know where your sources of pollution are across your operations and supply chain and how they affect biodiversity?
• What actions would you need to take to reduce pollution?
• Can your actions drive efficiency or lead to new innovative ways of doing things?

🌿 Target 9: Sustainable use

"Ensure that the management and use of wild species are sustainable, thereby providing social, economic and environmental benefits for people."

Potential effect on business: Additional scrutiny on supply chains that rely on animals and biological materials.

Suggested questions for business to consider:

• Are wild species used in your supply chain?
• How does your use of wild species affect others dependent on biodiversity?

🗑️ Target 16: Consumption

"Ensure that people are encouraged and enabled to make sustainable consumption choices."

Potential effect on business: The need to provide more information to support sustainable choices. This could be through labelling requirements or other forms of supporting information.

Suggested questions for business to consider:

• Is there an opportunity to develop products/services that reduce resource use?
• Are you able to provide information on where your products and/or services impact/depend on biodiversity?
• Can you reduce waste in your processes and therefore also reduce costs?

The above effects and questions are not exhaustive but an illustration of where different elements of the Global Biodiversity Framework may affect business depending on the outcomes of the negotiations and how these may be implemented through regional and national policies and regulations.

Beyond COP15, there are other mechanisms that will require business to consider their impact on nature including the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the proposed EU ban on products that cause deforestation and TNFD.

As the landscape to reverse nature loss changes ever more rapidly, it is clear that a direction of travel has been set. It is vital for business to understand their impact and dependency on nature across their entire value chain and to fully realise the risks and opportunities they may face in relation to biodiversity.

We wait in anticipation to see how the outputs of COP15 will drive nature recovery and what this will mean for business.