A wake-up call for companies: What Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework means for business

The historic Kunming-Montreal agreement adopted by 196 countries at COP15 in December has put the spotlight on the level of ambition and action needed to address the biodiversity crisis. Through four goals and 23 targets, the new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) rallies all parts of society around a central mission to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, representing a genuine and welcome step towards securing a nature positive future.

The global focus now needs to move to translating the commitments made in Montreal into concrete roadmaps at the national level that will enable meaningful cross-sector action.

Central to this is the role of business and finance, as set out in Target 15 of the Framework. For the first time in a multi-lateral agreement, governments have explicitly committed to require all large and transnational companies and financial institutions to assess and disclose their risks, impacts and dependencies on nature, through their operations, supply and value chains, and portfolios.  

Read our analysis of Target 15

*Read Business for Nature’s analysis which* ***expands and consolidates our initial reaction to Target 15.*** Its purpose is to inform and update stakeholders on our assessment of the level of ambition within Target 15, what businesses can expect to happen next, and the actions business and finance can take.

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If implemented successfully, Target 15 could be transformative - rewarding positive corporate actions on nature and accelerating the transformation of key socio-economic systems.

To help companies and governments progress, Business for Nature has produced an analysis of what the target means for business- examining its scope and components to outline three key areas of action:

1. Comply with monitoring, assessment and disclosure requirements

2. Provide sustainability information to consumers

3. Report on compliance with access and benefit-sharing (ABS) regulations and measures

We also explore the tools and guidance that are already available to companies as they start preparing for upcoming mandatory requirements.

Target 15 and other COP15 outcomes relevant to business were also discussed at a COP15 webinar hosted by Business for Nature and Accenture – with a panel of corporate leaders, including Salesforce and IKEA sharing their perspectives on what the GBF means for their organizations, their industries and the private sector more broadly.

You can help us reinforce the strong outcomes from COP15 to ensure governments continue with the right level of ambition when developing National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans by using these resources, including content to share on social media and this slide deck on what the COP15 outcomes mean for business.

The overall objective of Target 15 is to ensure that businesses and financial institutions reduce their negative impacts and increase positive impacts in line with the GBF’s mission to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. While reaching this objective will require new levels of reporting, investment and collaboration, support is at hand through increasingly standardized tools, and business leaders can refer to the High-Level Business Actions on nature and the discussion paper How business and finance can contribute to a nature positive future now to take the next steps on their nature positive journey.