Three key blocks to mobilize resources for the Biodiversity Game
Let’s connect over coffee. Sound familiar? Or how about, Let’s connect over coffee in the next 6 years. Well, if we stay on the business-as-usual trajectory of destroying forests and habitats, that’s about as long as we have to enjoy these rituals where ideas germinate, and collaborations take root.
Better yet, let’s connect with coffee, with nature now.
Enter #OptiMisty. Participating in the Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16) that wrapped up last week was a transformational experience for me. How so? Two years ago, at COP15 in Montreal, over 18,000 people from 196 countries were a part of something really big... the birth of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (the GBF, also known in simpler terms as The Biodiversity Plan). The Biodiversity Plan includes 23 targets for urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, towards a 2050 vision of a world living in harmony with nature.
Fast forward to COP16 in Cali, Colombia where over 20,000 people (including the largest delegation from the business sector) gathered and negotiated on how to implement the Biodiversity Plan. There was something about being in the megadiverse country of Colombia to truly see and feel the importance of how we transform the Biodiversity Plan commitments into actional plans.
In other words, how our actions today will shape our future over the next 6 years.
From the festive, lively atmosphere in the public open-air Green Zone in downtown Cali to where the formal negotiations and side events took place in the Blue Zone, one quote really hit home for me.
We are the first generation to know that we’re destroying our planet, and the last that can do anything about it. - Paul Polman, COP16 Keynote Address
So... let’s do anything and everything we can. It’s more than collaboration, it’s collaboraction.
Implementing the Biodiversity Plan is not only for “governments”, “corporates” or “investors”, it’s for everyone. Whether you live and work from your home, in an urban jungle or in the indigenous coffee-producing communities of Colombia, we’re all in this together. (If this sounds like High School Musical to you, read my last article).
It’s ‘game on’ for all of us.
A focal point at COP16 was this Jenga-like six-metre-tall structure by Canadian artist, Benjamin Von Wong, with hollow blocks each containing dioramas of different ecosystems with children at the top. (don’t worry, these were mannequins... though quite realistic!)
The concept is clever and simple. If we keep taking blocks out, the tower will crumble.
What if in this “Biodiversity Game” we all put blocks back in? Think about it. What “blocks” or game-changing powers do we possess or have influence over that can help us ‘win’ and build balanced and stable outcomes for everyone?
Below are three key “blocks” (not takeaways) from COP16 to help connect with nature and collaboract to mobilize resources and win the Biodiversity Game. Game on!
Block 1: Reframe Nature as our greatest asset, the foundational building block for everything
Nature’s inherent complexity, as well as the services it provides, are essential assets that underpin global economies and societies. If we keep treating Nature simply as a resource for the taking, we’ll have nothing left – including that cup of coffee you’re enjoying.
As Hari Balasubramanian (and many others throughout COP16) put it,
Nature needs to show up on the balance sheet. It’s simplistic in its notion. If people can make money from the value of nature or see its degradation as a liability on their balance sheet, they will do something about it. If they don’t, there will be financial consequences – either specific risks to supply chains or systemic risks – for their business or investment.”
As stated by senior executives in asset management, if we agree that nature underpins the global economy, then nature positive investing is intrinsically aligned with fiduciary duty.
I’m a visual person. What does Nature actually look like on a balance sheet? Something like this:
Block 2: Align with coordinated plans for action
Once we understand Nature’s tremendous value, we need alignment. The Nature Positive Initiative (NPI), a multistakeholder platform of 27 partners including the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), was created to align around the term “Nature Positive”, codify this to the Biodiversity Plan; and build consensus around how to measure Nature Positive.
What to watch for: The NPI is proposing a set of ‘state of nature metrics’ (that will be the equivalent of Climate’s Net Zero singular metric, C02e). I like to think of “Nature Positive” as the yin to Climate’s “Net Zero” yang. These nature metrics will be used to assess if actions are delivering nature-positive outcomes and contributing to halting and reversing nature loss. Final set of state of nature metrics to come in early 2025.
For governments, National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) outline a country’s plan on how to protect and restore nature. Progress is being made; however, more work needs to be done. Check out World Wildlife Fund's intuitive NBSAP tracker to see the latest on NBSAP submissions and digestible country assessments. How is your country fairing? Are you on the map? Anything you can do to help move any ‘poor’ or ‘mixed’ assessments to ‘good’?
For financial institutions and businesses, it’s time to future-proof your organization. While vulnerable on-the-ground communities, especially in megadiverse locations, feel the most severe impacts of nature loss today, these impacts are rippling through supply chains across borders and oceans to boardrooms, procurement offices and portfolios.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has guidance (by sector, biome, value chains, engaging with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities and more) to help organizations identify and assess nature-related issues and inform disclosure. Look at your operations and supply chains and pick one or two nature services you depend on. The key is to just start.
The TNFD recently published a discussion paper that sets out draft guidance on the nature of transition planning to adjust business models and value chains. Feedback is requested by February 1, 2025.
NatureFinance will also launch the Nature-Finance Alignment Tool on November 7 to help the financial sector align financial flows with nature-positive outcomes.
Block 3: Mobilize bigger, bolder and better financing for Nature with the right people (especially, and in productive partnership with, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities!)
With alignment, we can be laser focused on closing the ~$711B-1.2T annual nature financing gap by 2030. Of this gap, ~$500B needs to be redirected away from harmful subsidies to positive incentives for conservation and restoration. That leaves ~$200-400B in new financing for greener economies. Here are some pathways and tools for mobilizing these financial flows that were spotlighted at COP16:
For asset owners (institutions and High Net Worth Individuals), if we don't invest in nature, we'll lose it and everything else. Nature2 is mainstreaming nature investing and getting the largest investors to allocate to the most important asset we have. During COP16, Gail Gallie Jay Lipman Imogen Fairbairn and Hari Balasubramanian convened investors and stakeholders at Nature House to build even more momentum. Learn more about Nature2 and join the movement!
On tech and data, the Nature Tech Collective and partners launched, Integrating nature tech: A Guide for Businesses, that provides solutions as well as ~30 case studies to help move from plans to action. I’m also inspired by Satelligence that partners with consultancies, asset managers, food companies and NGOs who are leveraging satellite data for responsible sourcing, investment, nature positive strategy, and conservation. Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) continue to provide global datasets that identify areas of particular importance for biodiversity (this Bezos Earth Fund KBA Congo project is worth noting!)
On targets, the WBCSD Roadmaps prepare companies for setting science-based targets for nature, reporting against the TNFD and taking priority actions in line with the Biodiversity Plan.
On building confidence in Nature Markets, Erika Korosi from Conservation International, the Biodiversity Credit Alliance and our EcoAdvisors team will be finalizing a report based on this draft discussion report (scroll to the bottom). This high-level Policy Framework identifies key enabling policies needed to “trade” nature services (such as nature credits or biodiversity credits) in a high-integrity and equitable way. Most importantly, the Framework ensures the voices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), the key stewards of nature, are engaged and respected in these processes and equally benefit from these markets.
If you’ve made it this far, the bottom line is this:
The next time you connect over coffee, go deeper. Connect with coffee, with nature and discuss ways to collaboract. With the right framing (to put nature on the balance sheet), alignment (to what we depend on) and pathways and tools (to mobilize finance with the right people) – all actors can be motivated to play the Game to protect and restore nature.
At COP16, a couple more "blocks” were put back in, including the creation of a separate new fund for countries to protect nature and a permanent body to include IPLCs in decision making. These historic outcomes are nicely summarized by Wildlife Conservation Society here.
More blocks are needed. As I sip my coffee (a medium roast from Colombia), I am even more motivated and energized to play the Game. As we connect with coffee, with nature, what blocks can we all put in to help build balanced and stable outcomes for everyone?
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