COP15: Milestone achievement that will accelerate the integration of Biodiversity Risk

Written by Nhung Nguyen, Delia Miceli and Alessandro Musto

COP (Conference of the Parties) 15 was organized in Montreal from 7th to 19th December, under the presidency of China's Minister of ecology and environment. UN Biodiversity COP15 is considered as “Paris moment for Biodiversity”, where a new global biodiversity framework was discussed among global leaders. Participated nations had failed to achieve Aichi by-2020 Biodiversity targets agreed in COP 10 (2010) due to the lack of ambitions and actions to tackle main drivers of biodiversity loss. Nevertheless, COP15 has brought in some positivity with the adoption of Kunming-Montreal "Global Biodiversity Framework" (GBF).

• 30-by-30: Delegates at COP15 has reached milestone commitment to protect 30% of land, coastal and marine areas by 2030 (currently 17% of land and 8% of marine areas are under protection). Besides, 30% of degraded land and water should be restored. Within the areas with high biodiversity importance and high ecological integrity, effort should be put to reduce biodiversity loss to nearly zero. To achieve those targets, COP15 also set up action-oriented global targets by 2030 to reduce the drivers of biodiversity loss (e.g: phrasing out or reforming harmful subsidies, eliminate, minimize, reduce and/or mitigate the impacts of invasive alien species, reduce pollution risks to a not harmful level, halve global food waste)
• Nature funding: Same as Climate Change COP, funding for solutions is always the biggest question mark to ensure the practicability of the framework. Under COP15 agreement, at least $200 billion will be mobilized from public and private resources to biodiversity-related funding, in which, at least annual amount of $20 billion by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030 will be directed from developed countries to developing countries. Compared to Aichi Target, quantifiable funding objectives is a big achievement of COP15 to enable progress tracking and motivate private funding to provide additional needed resources.
• Disclosure and Reporting requirements: The success in the implementation of COP15 agreement strongly depends on robust monitoring and transparent disclosure. Target 15 of GBF highlights the needs for reporting and disclosure requirements, applicable to large businesses and financial institutions to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity. GBF does not explicitly mention frameworks for biodiversity disclosure. At GIAM, we identify the following as the most fit for the purpose:

1. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): a revision of GRI standards has introduced 3 important innovations: i) extension of biodiversity disclosures to organizations’ supply chain ii) framework simplification to focus on the most significant impacts and drivers of biodiversity loss and iii) introduction of reporting on biodiversity-related human rights impacts. The updated standard is expected to be available in H2 2023 after the closure of public discussion.
2. International Sustainability Standard Board (ISSB): ISSB, which belongs to IFRS confirmed to extend its current climate standards with issues regarding natural ecosystems, deforestation, water, biodiversity and “just transition” (just transition: inclusion of social interventions to secure workers' rights and livelihoods in shifting to sustainable economic model). The extension details will be based on the TNFD framework.
3. Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD): With the mission to provide a framework for financial institutions and business to address and disclosure on the double materiality of its business on nature, TNFD framework seeks to assess evolving nature-related risks against four pillars: (1) Governance; (2) Strategy; (3) Risk Management; and (4) Metrics and Targets. The final release of the framework is expected in September 2023.

Regulators has welcomed the big achievement of COP15 as it represents a century milestone for saving the world’s biodiversity. EU Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius stated: “(..) without Montreal there will be no Paris, because we need to protect biodiversity to achieve our climate targets. Today’s deal is an all-round win and I am proud we made it. The real work starts now to turn the words on paper into real action around the world”. 

At COP15, several initiatives were agreed and launched among governments and business. Canada and all G7 countries except Italy formed a new alliance to force mining companies to adopt environmentally sustainable and socially responsible standards. Global investors launched Nature Action 100, a global engagement initiative to reduce nature loss and biodiversity decline by collaboratively engaging corporates on nature-related risks and dependencies.

Certain concerns remain in our view. Firstly, GBF framework should be enhanced with binding accountability to each nation and ensure the update of National Biodiversity Strategies and Actions before next COP in 2024. Stronger and more robust data, combined with more clarity on funding mechanism will support countries to achieve this goal. Secondly, the integration of the voices and needs of the most biodiversity-rich nations (such as Brazil, China, Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia with more than 131,000 plant species, around 6,000 birds, and nearly 3,000 mammals) will be strategic to achieve the ambition of COP15.