More than 330 companies published a "COP15 Business Statement" on 25 October 2022. The document calls for mandatory assessment and disclosure of risks and impacts on nature by large companies and financial institutions. The aim is to halt the erosion of biodiversity and move towards regeneration.
In the final push for a new global nature agreement at the 15th UN Conference on Biodiversity (COP15) in Montreal from 7-19 December 2022, more than 330 business and financial institutions are urging world leaders to go beyond voluntary action, transform the economic rules of the game, and demand that companies act now to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
The companies, with combined revenues of more than US$1.5 trillion, are expressing their demands in a document called the COP15 Business Statement. The document calls for mandatory assessment and disclosure of risks and impacts on nature by large companies and financial institutions. The aim is to “halt the loss of biodiversity and move towards recovery”, the statement says.
The document stresses that if the assessment and disclosure of nature risks and impacts were mandatory, it would help create fairer competition for companies, increase accountability, engage investors and consumers, help SMEs minimise their dependence on nature through supply chains and help secure the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
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The signatories of the ‘COP15 Business Statement’ highlight how economically shortsighted it is for governments, companies and financial institutions to be unaware of their impacts and dependencies on nature. The shift to a nature-positive economy will create nearly 400 million jobs and $10 trillion in annual business value by 2030.
Boris Ngounou
