IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment

We don't have a nature data and methodology problem. We have a nature decision problem.

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I really enjoyed reading the latest IPBES Business & Biodiversity Assessment and a huge thank you and congratulations to the leading experts who pulled this together.

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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 - 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄: businesses depend on nature but are depleting it. This cause serious risks to business operations. The public sector alone can’t do solve the crisis - businesses are central to halting and reversing biodiversity loss.

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But there is an uncomfortable reality here.  Many businesses still perceive that there is little or no financial cost for negative impacts, and many struggle to generate revenue from positive impacts. As a result, many don’t act. But it’s not all half glass empty. In my time working with businesses, I have not once come across someone (CSO, CEO or CFO) who doesn’t want to move this agenda forward. So the real question becomes – why are we not acting?  We need to identify and focus on the real problem if we want to progress.

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Table SPM. 2.  Actions that businesses can take now to address their impacts and dependencies

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The IPBES report emphasises that there is a huge number of methods, knowledge bases and data for measuring impacts and dependencies already. However, less than 1% of publicly reporting companies mention impacts and dependencies in their reports. So why aren’t they doing it? According to the report, financial institutions representing 30% of global market capitalisation see the greatest barriers to uptake nature-related risk assessments are:

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  • Access to reliable data
  • Access to reliable models
  • Access to scenarios

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It goes on to say that businesses are spending more time trying to decipher complex competing frameworks than taking meaningful action and then unpacks which methods, metrics and policy tools are appropriate to help.

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Having worked with multiple organisations and sectors to embed nature at the heart of operations (and proving the commercial business case for doing this), four core things have landed which has accelerated uptake.

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❗𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: You don’t need to do everything now. Yes, there is a nature crisis and yes, your business is probably contributing to it and yes this creates risk. However, you can take actions to address this now by focusing on key areas which improve resilience and unlock swathes of opportunity

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↪️ 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: This is a core component of the TNFD and other nature-frameworks and methodologies. You can start now, learn from your mistakes and increase your scope over time. This leads onto my next point.

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💯𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Don’t let perfection get in the way of good. It’s likely that mistakes will be made but businesses can learn and adapt and ultimately build value over time. Your relationship with the natural world in unique to you, your activities and geographies your work in. Don’t wait for the perfect equation to solve it (it doesn’t exist)

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💡𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: building on the above, businesses should think strategically. There may be areas where your control and influence is higher than others. Don’t dwell on areas where you think you can’t act right now – take a strategic approach to drive the agenda forward where you can (and come back to others). There will be times where changing procurement is best, times where altering processes are best or times where advocacy is your best route.

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Table SPM. 1.  Actions that various actors can undertake to create an enabling environment for businesses

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I think these sentiments feed in well to the three overarching characteristics outlined in the report to guide appropriate methods for assessment namely: (1) coverage – what geographical coverage do you need as well as the extent of your impacts and dependencies; (2) accuracy – the degree to which the results describe what they and designed to measure and; (3) responsiveness – the ability of the method to detect changes that can be attributed to the action of the business).

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My closing thoughts:

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The IPBES report makes it clear that all businesses have a responsibility to address their impacts and dependencies and could go further given the correct enabling environments. I agree that there is a gap where businesses struggle to understand and access data, methods and evidence. However, these are all things that are achievable with the right support for innovation. We already have deep technical methods from the likes of SBTN and TNFD, we have incredible data access from amazing organisations such as Natcap Research and Earthblox, we have case studies showing the substantial risk (just look at the UK’s latest national security report on biodiversity and ecosystems).  

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I don’t think we have a nature data and methodology problem. I think we have a nature decision problem. What we need in an environment that supports innovation and action and leaders who are willing to create that change.

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“Every business depends on biodiversity, and every business impacts biodiversity. [this] poses a critical and pervasive systemic risk to the economy, financial stability and human wellbeing”.

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𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁: https://www.ipbes.net/node/97532

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