Biodiversity Disclosure on COP15’s Agenda: Action Items for Policymakers

Our latest article discusses why corporate biodiversity disclosure regulation should be on top of policymakers’ agenda heading into COP15 in Montreal, Canada this December and explain the set of recommendations we developed in order to implement corporate biodiversity disclosure globally.

In December, all eyes will be on Montreal, Canada as world leaders congregate for the second part of the Convention for Biological Diversity’s COP 15 meeting, chaired by China. Top priority on the meeting agenda is finalising the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Often obscured by the prominence of the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis is steadily earning its spot as one of the world’s most critical issues. WWF Living Planet Report 2020 describes that more than 4,300 different vertebrate species have declined by 68% between 1970 to 2016 due to anthropogenic causes. The World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss as the 3rd most severe economic risk that humanity will face over the next decade.

Without swift intervention and a reallocation of capital, biodiversity loss will be irreversible and ultimately results in devastating impacts to the world economy and humanity. Corporate biodiversity disclosure increases transparency on the companies’ impact on biodiversity but also to what extent they are affected by the global decline of biodiversity and ecosystems. As it stands today, corporate biodiversity disclosure is mainly missing.