November 28 – It’s rare that environmental terms become buzzwords, but that is what’s happened in recent months to “nature positive”.
The phrase is suddenly everywhere, from nature-positive insurance to nature-positive fashion shows and nature-positive cities. Major businesses, including the likes of Salesforce, GSK, Holcim and Unilever, are setting out how they plan to contribute to a nature-positive world. In 2024, the Australian government will host the world’s first nature-positive summit.
But what does it mean? Put simply, nature positive means halting and reversing nature loss to ensure there is more nature in the world in 2030 than there was in 2020, and continued recovery after that.
This attention on nature is welcome and much needed. Humanity has, for the most part, disregarded its impact on the natural world. We have drilled, farmed, logged and trawled without paying much attention to the costs to nature. This has created a false economy, one that has been growing, while nature and its contributions to people have been declining. Despite the world’s GDP being dependent on nature, we have taken it for granted and plunged our planet into the red. Current rates of production and consumption are so unsustainable that by August 2 this year, human activities had already used up the total amount of natural resources that the Earth can regenerate this year.
So, why the sudden interest? It’s because we can only ignore nature for so long. As our abuse of the natural world has increased our risk of pandemics, threatened livelihoods and undermined our ability to tackle the climate crisis, we have woken up to biodiversity loss being one of the greatest global threats facing humanity.
An employee uses a chainsaw to cut logs in Bom Retiro deforestation area in Amazonas state, Brazil. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly Acquire Licensing Rights
After years of equivocation, world leaders came together last December to adopt a new Global Biodiversity Framework that committed the world to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. Governments made it clear companies and financial institutions should assess and disclose their risks, impacts and dependencies on biodiversity.
Businesses and investors are finally recognising their exposure to nature-related risks, estimated at $58 trillion. S&P Global recently launched a biodiversity risk dataset, and some, such as Fidelity Investments, are announcing they will vote against companies that fail to meet expectations on deforestation-related practices.
However, we must be neither complacent nor naive. We must ensure businesses only use the term nature-positive in the context of a clear, time-bound and measurable global goal, with progress measured against science-based targets that will secure genuine nature-positive outcomes. Companies need to choose their words carefully when sharing how they are contributing to the global goal. But the most important thing is that they are taking meaningful action now, and at the scale required.
This means taking and demonstrating specific actions, to firstly avoid and reduce their impacts, and to support positive restoration, for example through reduced water use and pollution, zero deforestation, and biodiversity and ecosystem protection and restoration.
We need to only look at the abuse of “carbon neutral” and “net zero” claims to know the dangers, which recently led the EU to ban carbon neutral claims unless companies can prove they are accurate. Even if it can drive real impact on the ground, carbon offsetting continues to be in the spotlight due to some using flawed accounting and others failing to prioritise in-house emissions reduction.
The president of the U.N.-backed COP15 biodiversity conference, China’s Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu, lowers the gavel to pass the The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in Montreal, Quebec, Canada December 19, 2022. Julian Haber/UN Biodiversity/Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
This is why 27 of the world’s largest nature conservation organisations, institutes, business and finance coalitions, have joined together in the Nature Positive Initiative to promote the original and high-integrity definition of nature positive and provide guidance on the role of individual actors. With action to reverse nature loss by 2030 vital to limiting global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius, a shared definition across the business community and beyond is the starting point to an effective response to our connected environmental crises.
Importantly, companies and financial institutions can and should contribute to the nature-positive goal. They can do this by assessing their material impacts and dependencies, committing to set science-based targets for nature, transforming their operations and value chains, advocating for policy ambition, and disclosing through publicly reporting material nature-related information by following the recommendations of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures.
Guidance is also now available to help them develop and publish their own nature strategies as well as sector-specific priority actions that will help contribute towards the nature-positive goal.
Doing so will prepare company directors for future regulation and consumer and investor demands as they are increasingly exposed to potential fines over nature-related impacts and risks.
The moment when an idea begins to pick up momentum is when it is most at risk of being co-opted. Nature positive can be the rallying cry for a more sustainable world, but we must ensure it is more than a slogan, and drives all of us to take transformative and measurable action – right now.
