A ‘business as usual’ mindset is contributing to continued biodiversity decline, despite firms being central actors in efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, a new report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has found.
According to the Summary for Policymakers of the Business and Biodiversity Assessment, which was approved by the more than 150 member governments of IPBES during the 12th session of the IPBES Plenary, economic growth over the past few decades as been intrinsically linked to biodiversity loss; a situation that now poses risks to economic stability and future wellbeing.
As the report found, most businesses do not bear the financial cost of their negative impacts on biodiversity, and are often unable to generate revenue from activities that are compatible with achieving a just and sustainable future.
Alignment between commercial activity and biodiversity outcomes is being hampered by limited data, weak incentives, and regulatory gaps, it noted.
‘Integrated framework’
“This report draws on thousands of sources, bringing together years of research and practice into a single integrated framework that shows both the risks of nature loss to business, and the opportunities for business to help reverse this,” commented Matt Jones, one of three co-chairs of the Assessment.
“This is a pivotal moment for businesses and financial institutions, as well as Governments and civil society, to cut through the confusion of countless methods and metrics, and to use the clarity and coherence offered by the Report to take meaningful steps towards transformative change. Businesses and other key actors can either lead the way towards a more sustainable global economy or ultimately risk extinction – both of species in nature, but potentially also their own.”
As the report noted, in 2023, global public and private finance flows with directly negative impacts on nature were estimated at $7.3 trillion, of which private finance accounted for $4.9 trillion. At the same time, just $220 billion was directed toward conservation and biodiversity restoration activities.
According to IPBES, businesses are unable to deliver the scale of change required on their own – also, uptake remains uneven across sectors and regions.
The report outlines more than 100 actions for businesses, governments, financial actors and civil society that can foster positive biodiversity outcomes while addressing economic risks.
‘Twisted reality’
“The loss of biodiversity is among the most serious threats to business”, added Prof. Stephen Polasky, co-chair of the Assessment. “Yet the twisted reality is that it often seems more profitable to businesses to degrade biodiversity than to protect it. Business as usual may once have seemed profitable in the short term, but impacts across multiple businesses can have cumulative effects, aggregating to global impacts, which can cross ecological tipping points.
“The report shows that business as usual is not inevitable – with the right policies, as well as financial and cultural shifts, what is good for nature is also what is best for profitability. To get there, the Report offers tools for choosing more effective measurements and analysis.” Read more here.
