Business for Nature Second Statement

OEWG 2 – CBD

25 February, 2020, Rome, Italy

My name is Eva Zabey. I am the Executive Director of the Business for Nature Coalition, which is a unique global coalition of influential business and conservation organizations.

 Our aim is to unify the business voice to call for more ambitious policies and practices on nature.

Yesterday, we heard lots of the right messages from all of you: we agree that we need more ambition, clarity and specificity. We congratulate the team on making significant progress. But this morning Ambassador Peter Thomson asked us: ‘does the zero draft sufficiently meet the urgency?’ The Business for Nature coalition doesn’t believe it does... yet. However, we are optimistic that the final version will, with your leadership.

Ladies and gentlemen, while we strive for transformation, we cannot be paralyzed by complexity.

It is our collective responsibility to act now, and that includes business and finance. 

We would like to share three brief comments on the zero draft:  

1. Firstly, we’d like business and finance to be identified more clearly as key actors that can help deliver solutions for nature.

2. Secondly, we encourage you to consider adopting the following apex goal, that is supported by leading conservation and business groups: zero net loss of nature from 2020, net positive by 2030, full recovery by 2050. Including such an apex goal will increase the relevance for business action and overall effectiveness of the Framework.

3. And thirdly, there needs to be clarity around who does what as well as the specific transformative actions and conditions that are needed.

Let’s not let the perfect the enemy of the good. Let’s not be paralyzed by complexity. 

Let’s provide the direction and ambition that is needed and deliver a successful COP in Kunming that our children and grand-children will be proud of. 

Business is here to help.

Thank you very much

Business for Nature’s full policy recommendations can be found here.