The sector advocates the creation of limits for damage and the cutting of financing that is harmful to biodiversity in an agreement that is being debated by 196 countries
Companies want to take action to protect nature, which will bring benefits to food production, research into medicines and cosmetics, and innovation
The business sector wants to create goals and parameters to reduce the impact of business on nature in the coming years. It also wants to cut funding for actions that harm the planet's biodiversity. The goal is to build a new model of economic development, focused on the conservation of ecosystems, animals and plants.
This is because the current global scenario of predatory exploitation puts at risk activities such as food production, research into new medicines and cosmetics, the replenishment of drinking water sources, scientific and genetic innovation, and the supply of raw materials for commercial and industrial activities. The business sector wants to be an effective part of the transformation towards sustainable development.
The demands of the business sector are being discussed within the UN environment, in the Convention on Biological Diversity, which is in the process of drafting the so-called Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, with rules to be implemented by national governments and companies. In March, the Swiss city of Geneva will host a new round of debates, bringing together the 196 countries in the search for the final text of the document.
The Biodiversity Framework will have a similar effect to the Paris Agreement in terms of combating climate change. In other words, the world will define what needs to be done by 2030 to avoid even greater damage to nature and how to restore ecosystems. Concern about this issue has been growing increasingly important, to the point that the World Economic Forum has just listed biodiversity loss as the third main global risk.
The sector's positioning is led in Brazil by CEBDS (Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development), which represents more than 80 companies and almost 50% of Brazil's GDP. The Council works together with Business for Nature in negotiations to defend the position of the productive sector.
The goal is to ensure that the business sector plays an active role in this new model, just as it did in the climate discussions. In this way, companies will have targets to meet in their operations, but they will also be drivers of innovation and the transformation of the global economy towards sustainable development.
The most recent version of the Biodiversity Framework now includes two targets for businesses. One of them, target 15, requires companies to assess and report their impacts on biodiversity and reduce their negative effects by at least half. This is a proposal that could become very relevant, like the global carbon market provided for in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This is because it places companies as central actors in nature conservation, both in terms of targets to be met and in creating solutions to this challenge.
Target 18 aims to redirect, repurpose, reform or eliminate incentives that are harmful to biodiversity, amounting to at least US$500 billion per year, including all the most harmful subsidies, and ensure that economic and regulatory incentives are positive or neutral for biodiversity. In practice, this means using new financing money for projects that, instead of destroying nature, can conserve it.
“The proposals from the business sector will encourage businesses to generate positive impacts on nature. By collaborating in the definition of goals and metrics for operations and prioritizing investments in sustainable solutions, companies want to promote, in the short term, a new development model, based on a green economy, which generates jobs and income in a sustainable way”, says Henrique Luz, technical coordinator of CEBDS and leader of the Biodiversity Thematic Chamber at CEBDS.
In recent years, the business sector has been working together with Brazilian governments to create a new Biodiversity Framework. Countries have a voice and vote in UN conventions, so companies have been talking to Brazilian representatives to find the best proposal. Brazil plays a key role in this process, as it is the most megadiverse country in the world – it has the greatest wealth and variety of plant and animal species, as well as several types of biomes. Therefore, it has the potential to lead discussions and demonstrate that it is possible to produce and conserve at the same time, generating jobs and income without destroying nature.
