Corporate biodiversity reporting takes shape at UN summit

According to the ISSB, the rule, like IFRS accounting standards, can be adopted by countries and should take into account the relationship between climate and nature, such as the diversity of cultivated natural organisms, deforestation and water use. purpose. The group did not go as far as providing specific indicators and said it would publish updated standards in 2023.

The move towards biodiversity standards will see government officials and nonprofits meet in Montreal for the UN COP15 biodiversity conference to urge countries and businesses to minimize their environmental impact by 2030. It happens in launching international goals that support nature conservation by encouraging.

Biodiversity refers to the vast diversity of animals, plants and other living things in the world, many of which are threatened by human activities. According to the United Nations, about one million species are threatened with extinction, many within decades.

“This summit has to be a turning point in the relationship between humanity and nature, and to do so it must bring about fundamental changes in how the economy works,” said the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, UK. Policy Director Elliott Whittington said. “More and more companies and financial institutions are recognizing how important action is on nature and biodiversity, but it is important to ensure that governments have the right rules to solve market failures and enable change. and provide incentives.”

One of the proposed rules would “encourage and enable companies to regularly monitor, assess and transparently disclose their impacts on biodiversity,” according to a draft released Wednesday. It calls on countries to make laws that The goal is to halve the negative impacts of business on biodiversity by 2030.

Early reporting efforts

About 30 international companies have already reported on their impacts on biodiversity and their progress on commitments to improve them as part of the Restoration Barometer pilot project with the United Nations International Union for Conservation of Nature. Barometers are used by 22 governments to track progress in projects to restore damaged natural habitats.

Carole Saint-Laurent, Head of IUCN’s Forests and Grasslands Team, said: “Companies cannot sustain their efforts unless they factor these things into their operations, and they constantly face problems with their communities. I will do it.”

The trial could act as a beacon for such reporting, making the idea of ​​other companies voluntarily reporting their impacts on biodiversity more comfortable, Saint Laurent said. For other companies, I think it’s a lot more compelling than legal requirements,” she said.

Still, questions remain about what a biodiversity impact assessment might look like in practice. New proposals from the Global Reporting Initiative also call for companies to report their environmental impacts across their supply chains, aligned with COP15, with proposed recommendations on pollution, resource overexploitation, and carbon emissions. contains disclosures. The GRI, a standards body, is also proposing to have companies report location-specific data to ensure transparency about the sites where they impact biodiversity.

The IUCN pilot program goes beyond where companies have factories and operations, said Saint-Laurent.

“We are cooperating [companies] It’s about broadening their horizons about what restoration looks like, beyond planting trees,” she said. He pointed out that the goals include creating sustainable jobs. Human rights requirements, including monitoring the impact of commercial activities on workers and indigenous communities, are also part of the new standards proposed by GRI.

Overcome reporting challenges

Collecting data on biodiversity remains a challenge for companies and can often involve an expensive team of dozens of experts. To tackle this problem, London-based mining company Anglo American PLC turned to environmental DNA start-up NatureMetrics Ltd. to help simplify the process and lower costs.

Naturemetrics uses DNA fragments left by living organisms to test hundreds of species from water samples collected by companies during their operations. Anglo American has started using the technology at 11 sites and plans to roll it out permanently across all of its operations.

Still, there is no single metric that can easily and reliably demonstrate a company’s performance on biodiversity, says Kat Bruce, founder of UK-based NatureMetrics.

“We’re not at a point where we can get one number,” she said, adding, “It’s the numbers that show the performance.” Unlike reporting carbon emissions, assessing biodiversity can be complex and costly. “Carbon is one molecule of her. Biodiversity is all life on Earth,” she said. “And it’s different everywhere.”

Write to Joshua Kirby (joshua.kirby@wsj.com) and Dieter Holger (dieter.holger@wsj.com).