Key Takeaways from COP 15

It was wonderful to attend COP 15 in Montreal these past 2 weeks with over 18,000 others, and see heightened interest in Nature and Biodiversity and the acknowledgment of 2 conflicting trends: our dependence on Nature as an asset that underpins ~50% of global GDP and that 50% of what we do destroys or degrades that underlying asset (World Economic Forum New Nature Report). In particular it was good to see many from the corporate and financial sectors attending the event and asking for mandated disclosures to be imposed that make businesses detail the impact of their entire value chain on Nature and their dependencies on Nature. Also encouraging was the more prevalent voice of Indigenous Communities who represent <1% of the world's population but safeguard 80% of the world's biodiversity and are often most exposed to the destructive impacts of climate change and Biodiversity loss. Some key takeaways from the event and from the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) that emerged from it and set a pathway forward through 2030:

The Problem:

• Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss are twin problems that must be dealt with together; if we wait they will continue to degrade each other. We all understand the implications of rising GHG emissions raising global temperatures and the destructive impact that has on our world, but how many are aware that we are in the midst of the 6th mass extinction in history with 1M species under threat of extinction (over 1K times the normal rate)!
• The problems we have today are because we have not accounted for the cost of natural capital in our business operations - nature’s benefits to the economy are considered free

?Solutions: yes Nature and Biodiversity are fundamentally more complex than a temperature target threshold for climate change but there were some simple fundamental themes that demystify the solution:

Pathways to a Nature Positive economy by 2050

• Protect - the parties agreed to a 30x30 principle - protect 30% of the world's land and marine areas by 2030
• Restore - degraded lands and seas
• Sustainably Manage - change how we use the other 70%

How to finance this:

• Green Finance - divest from dirty and harmful businesses and invest in those that support goals of the GBF and be profitable - i.e. aligning financial flows to nature positive activities.?Today > $500B is spent each year on negative subsidies that destroy nature.
• Finance Green - closing the $711B gap
• Putting them together - if the $500B that is spent subsidizing nature harmful activities was redeployed to nature positive solutions it would close most of the $711B gap

How to assess the risk and impact: the Task Force for Nature Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) outlines some simple ways for a business to think through their impact and dependencies on Nature:

• Assess the locations and impacts/dependencies on Nature throughout your value chain
• Commit to targeted reductions in nature destructive activities
• Transform your value chain to nature positive activities
• Disclose your progress to stakeholders regularly

Notable Quotes:

• Old African proverb: "If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together."?Alberto Ninio, General Counsel Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
• "What bigger asset is there to conserve than nature?"?John Stackhouse, Chief of Staff, Royal Bank of Canada
• "Don't let perfect get in the way of good, but let's make sure that good is good enough" Frank Hawkins, Director IUCN

?At EcoAdvisors we have helped influence over $4.5B toward nature and climate positive activities over the last 10 years. We are ready to scale even further in the next decades to enable a planet where all people thrive.??