European Business and Nature Summit streamlining biodiversity into business

Today and tomorrow, high-level policy makers and business leaders are gathering at the European Business & Nature Summit to scale up business action for nature ahead of the crucial UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in the spring of 2022. Organised by the EU Business@Biodiversity Platform of the European Commission and other partners, the Summit aims to strengthen the growing movement of companies across Europe and beyond that are putting nature and people at the centre of their recovery strategies. Opening the Summit, Executive Vice-President in charge of the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans said: “Whereas the climate crisis is treated with urgency, the biodiversity crisis and the threat of ecocide have not yet risen high enough on the global agenda. Businesses increasingly recognize the urgency to act and I call on them to be vocal about the risks of biodiversity loss. Restoring our relationship with nature will stave off economic losses, generate new jobs, and ensure a habitable planet for future generations.” Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius said: “Businesses are a crucial lever in the system-wide change that needs to happen if we are to have a stable climate and a living planet where everyone can thrive. I count on them to drive the ambition for a Global Biodiversity Framework to be agreed at Biodiversity COP15, with ramped up biodiversity funding and sufficient mainstreaming of biodiversity in all sectors.” The Summit features front-running businesses and financial institutions sharing experiences, best practice examples and initiatives that aim to integrate natural capital and biodiversity into corporate decision-making, and encourages others to join. The event invites new signatories to the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge calling on global leaders to reverse nature loss within this decade and committing to protect and restore biodiversity through their finance activities and investments. These new signatories will boost the group of 75 financial institutions representing €12 trillion assets. More information is in the news item.