The Council will participate in March in Switzerland in the preparatory meetings for the new Biodiversity Framework, alongside negotiators from 196 countries
CEBDS (Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development) will be present at the next UN preparatory summit on biodiversity. The meeting will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from March 14 to 29, and will evaluate the text of the new Biodiversity Framework, a document that will define goals, parameters and standards to reduce damage to nature caused by human activity.
Concern about this issue has been growing, to the point that the World Economic Forum has just listed biodiversity loss as the third leading global risk. Protecting nature is also at the heart of solutions to address climate change.
At the meeting, CEBDS will defend the business sector’s view on the new framework, which should have a weight equivalent to the Paris Agreement in relation to climate – that is, it will outline the rules for the coming years for nature conservation, directing new investments and encouraging innovative solutions. CEBDS will participate directly in the meetings where international negotiations involving 196 countries take place and will hold bilateral meetings with the Brazilian government, in addition to events with international partners. In recent years, the Council has been working directly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to build Brazil’s position, reinforcing the importance of the business sector as a solution for sustainable development.
The meeting in Geneva is the last major step before the Conference of the Parties on Biodiversity, COP15, which will be held in Kunming, China, on a date yet to be defined. It will be during this round of negotiations in Switzerland that the countries will consolidate the final proposal for the new framework.
CEBDS will be represented by technical coordinator Henrique Luz, who leads the Biodiversity Thematic Chamber, and will work alongside Business for Nature, an entity that brings together the productive sector at a global level. Brazil plays a fundamental 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, in addition to several types of biomes. Therefore, it has the potential to lead the discussions and demonstrate that it is possible to produce and conserve at the same time, generating jobs and income without destroying nature.
The position that CEBDS will take to the UN meeting was developed in partnership with the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development (FBDS) and developed with our associates, government and academia. Part of this vision has already been incorporated into the draft of the new Biodiversity Framework.
The business sector wants to create clear goals and comparable parameters to reduce the impact of business on nature in the coming years. It also wants to support discussions on redirecting billion-dollar financing that currently has an impact on the planet's biodiversity towards actions that value nature. 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 new Biodiversity Framework has gained even more importance with the results of the UN Climate Conference, COP26, held last November in Glasgow, Scotland. The main international agreements have identified nature conservation as a central solution to combat global warming. The Climate COP demonstrated that tackling climate change goes hand in hand with valuing biodiversity.
The version of the Biodiversity Framework that will be evaluated includes at least 12 business-related targets. One of them, target 15, requires companies to assess and report their impacts on biodiversity and reduce their negative effects by at least half.
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 and leader of the Biodiversity Thematic Chamber at CEBDS.
