Comment: The COP16 to-do list for business is daunting, but we can get there by collaborating
Leah Seligmann
This article was first published in Reuters
October 31 – As the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference, known as CBD COP16, enters its last few days in Cali, Colombia, attendees have cause for hope. With the right plan and sufficient resolve, today’s fast-approaching environmental tipping points can still be averted. The 30-by-30 pledge to protect degraded land and marine ecosystems, which nearly 200 countries signed at CBD COP15 in 2022, provides the end goal for such a plan. The hard work now lies in deciding how the plan will be implemented.
Achieving consensus won’t be easy. From redirecting environmentally harmful subsidies to mobilizing $200 billion annually for conservation efforts, the COP16 to-do list is long and challenging. Success will require real leadership. But leadership of what kind, and from whom?
Business relies on nature at every stage of the value chain, and business leaders have an integral role to play in empowering policymakers to demonstrate courageous leadership at COP16. With more than half of global GDP at moderate or severe risk due to nature loss, we must act decisively. As B Team leader Sharan Burrow often warns, “There are no jobs on a dead planet.”
The We Mean Business Coalition’s 4 As of Climate Leadership framework offers a useful steer for business. The first “A” on the list is ambition. The existential character of today’s biodiversity crisis demands boldness of intent; half-hearted commitments will no longer cut it. Back in 1992, when delegates gathered for the very first Rio Earth Summit, they did so with a shared moral purpose. In Cali, let’s rekindle that spirit once again.
Beyond focusing on conserving what we have, we also need to regain what we’ve lost. Any future plan must have the regeneration of degraded or depleted ecosystems baked into its thinking. Breaking down the silos between climate and nature policymaking is equally urgent. The quicker this alignment can be secured, the better.
For companies in particular, carbon markets are an area in need of fresh ambition. Buying up nature-based climate credits with little or no attention to origin and impact is not just ineffective; it stalls progress. Done well, with high-quality credit standards, nature-based solutions hold exciting promise for both carbon sequestration and ecosystem restoration – but only if they’re high integrity, requiring companies to actively monitor what they buy.
This must happen alongside redirecting the funding of harmful subsidies to more positive outcomes. “Let’s incentivize the things we want, in parallel, where needed,” Patagonia CEO and B Team leader Ryan Gellert implored at Climate Week New York, “and regulate the things we don’t.”
The second “A” is action. For too long, perfection has been the enemy of the good. This is not to say that ongoing debates over the best technology or policy approach are invalid. In a fast-developing field, uncertainty is expected. Given the alarming trajectory of nature’s decline, however, waiting for certainty is a luxury we cannot afford. Where bottlenecks exist, let’s identify and tackle them, pragmatically, one by one.
At the same time, resist the temptation to go it alone. Natural ecosystems are complex and multifaceted; our approach to securing their protection must be likewise. Urgent as the situation is, the onus today lies on connecting different actors across different sectors in common cause. Nature needs action-oriented collaborators, not isolated action heroes.
The third priority for companies centers on advocacy. An effective and collective action plan means prioritizing a thriving future on planet Earth, the only home we share, above short-term political and commercial considerations. To succeed, collaboration is key. “Public trust in delivering success is four times higher when companies and governments work together,” affirms Ester Baiget, CEO of Danish bio-solutions company Novonesis and vice-chair of The B Team.
Ensuring nature and defenders of nature have a voice depends on who gets to occupy the seats at the negotiating table. Indigenous peoples own or steward about 25% of the world’s land surface; these communities are critical guardians of global biodiversity. Yet their voices have, historically, not been sufficiently heard. Encouragingly, the Cali talks are being referred to as the “COP of the people”. This collaborative spirit must deepen and extend beyond the summit.
The fourth and final “A” is accountability. Well-meaning words and political pledges will not stem the nature crisis. Even if the Cali conference, as hoped, brings greater clarity on how, and where, action can be implemented, success is by no means assured without clear targets and reporting frameworks.
The good news is that progress is afoot. Initiatives such as the Integrity Council’s Core Carbon Principles and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative’s Claims Code of Practice are bringing an overdue rigor to the field of carbon credits.
What’s needed now, in the final days of COP16 and beyond, is for policymakers to build on these foundations with clear and enforceable disclosure regulations. Businesses benefit from nature strategies that are clear and accountable, whether they are standalone or mainstreamed through sustainability agendas. Incorporating nature targets into executive remuneration packages is another powerful way to focus business leaders’ minds.
The challenges ahead for nature are huge, there’s no question. It’s vital that we lead courageously and keep believing in a brighter, more bountiful future. At the history-making Paris climate summit in 2015, I saw firsthand what is possible when business and governments collaborate to advance a common goal.
With relentless ambition, focused action, nature-first advocacy and clear accountability, it’s possible not just to halt the loss of nature, but to restore it. Let’s seize this moment in Cali.