Guy Duke, A-Track Project Director, Capitals Coalition
The world is facing unprecedented environmental challenges. What is the economic, political and environmental landscape we’re operating in? And how can A-Track act as a pivotal force, accelerating the shift towards a sustainable, nature-positive future?
a Key takeaways
- Much of global GDP is dependent on nature, yet nature’s stocks and services are in severe decline, with consequent risks to economies and societies, and progress on global environmental goals is now being challenged by political changes.
- Sustained competitiveness for businesses requires a multi-capitals approach that values natural, human and social, as well as produced, capital. Ignoring the value of nature is a competitive disadvantage.
- There is reason for hope. A number of initiatives are helping businesses and financial institutions move beyond commitments to action for nature.
- A-Track plays a crucial role in speeding up this transition by providing business, finance, and governments the knowledge and tools they need to use and apply to drive the transformative change.
The current economic, political and environmental landscape
Recent years have seen significant progress in engaging businesses and financial institutions on addressing the challenges posed by the triple environmental crises of climate, nature and pollution, notably under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF requires, among other things, that countries encourage and enable businesses and financial institutions to monitor, assess and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, in order to progressively reduce negative impacts on biodiversity and increase positive impacts.
The recent Nexus Report on the linkages between nature, climate and water by the International Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) highlights that around half of global GDP is ‘moderately to highly dependent’ on nature. Yet as the latest IPBES Global Assessment reveals, biodiversity – the variety and abundance of life on Earth – has substantially declined and continues to decline across every region. As the stocks of natural capital deplete, the ecosystem services upon which we depend similarly decline, with resulting increasing risks to economies and societies. The need for businesses, financial institutions and governments to accelerate action to protect and restore nature is therefore urgent.
In the European Union, the second von der Leyen Commission has reaffirmed its commitment to the European Green Deal. However, the recently published EU Competitiveness Compass barely references the environment and there is pressure to water down environmental reporting, due diligence and disclosure requirements in the Omnibus Package on Sustainability . While current regulations are undoubtedly over-complex, the focus needs to be on better, not weaker, regulation, and in particular on shifting the emphasis from box-ticking on reporting and disclosure to making the right, informed decisions to benefit nature.
Ignoring nature is not just an ethical failure, it's a competitive disadvantage for businesses, financial institutions and governments (this is why we’d like to have seen more references to nature in the EU Competitiveness Compass). Sustained success demands a holistic, multi-capitals approach that values what matters: nature and people, alongside produced capital. Competitiveness will be short-lived if it comes at the expense of biodiversity, the stocks of natural capital and the vital ecosystem services they supply. Indeed, we need to move beyond our obsession with ‘produced capital’ (goods and financial assets) to a ‘multi-capitals approach’, in which we take into account also the other three capitals - natural, human and social.
There are reasons to remain hopeful. There is a growing cohort of corporates and financial institutions committed to ‘nature positive’, for example those aligned with the Business for Nature initiative. Along with Business for Nature, a number of other organisations and initiatives are contributing to this push, including The Task Force on Nature-related Financial Reporting (TNFD) with its recommendations and tools for assessing, reporting and acting on nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, the Capitals Coalition through its Capitals Protocol and Framework for Integrated Decision-Making, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development with its Nature Action work including Road Maps to Nature Positive, the World Economic Forum’s Nature Action Agenda and others.
But beyond commitments, we need more urgency in operationalising nature positive strategies and building a critical mass of organisations taking the ‘nature journey’.
The role of A-Track
This is where A-Track steps in. Bringing together a consortium of visionary partners, A-Track aims to accelerate transformative action for nature by business, finance and government.
A-Track will:
- Democratise Nature Data: We're breaking down barriers, making critical nature-related data accessible to businesses, financial institutions, and the public sector, empowering informed decision-making.
- Integrate Biodiversity into Every Footprint: We're revolutionising footprinting methods, ensuring that products and organisations tread lightly on nature.
- Embed Nature into Core Business Decisions: From operations and sourcing to product design and strategic planning, we're equipping businesses with the tools to integrate nature in every step of their operations.
- Unleash Nature-Positive Business Models: We're identifying and testing innovative business models that generate both profit and positive environmental impact.
- Transform Mainstream Finance: We're stimulating a financial revolution, driving capital towards nature-positive investments.
Over the next few months, we will be releasing a series of articles and accompanying reports on user needs for biodiversity-related data, on wider business needs for integrating nature in decision-making, on business models that contribute to nature positive, and on barriers to scaling finance for nature.
Stay tuned or, better still, sign up to our mailing list to be among the first to hear about A-Track’s resources, events and research.