A year in review: Turning setbacks into renewed action
2025 has been a genuine stress-test of the foundations we’ve been building together as a coalition. Yet we remain as determined as ever as we close what has been a turbulent, fragmented and politically challenging year.
How? By shifting our collective focus to implementation and recognizing that progress exists – but not evenly around the world.
Implementing change in an interconnected system, where vested interests hold power, takes time. Time to build trust, relationships, capacity, and new norms. Across our coalition, we have been investing this time and taking steps forward. But this year has made one thing clear: the steady progress and growing momentum of business action and policy ambition cannot be taken for granted. The dismantling and back-tracking of crucial environmental legislations, particularly in key regions like the EU and the US, underscores the importance of our sustained collaboration and efforts.
A call for louder and united voices
2025 has been a challenging year in many jurisdictions as we witnessed a systematic approach to the deregulation of environmental legislation. This, coupled with geopolitical uncertainty, mis- and dis-information fueling increased polarization and the slow implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework, has created significant headwinds with global repercussions.
The rollercoaster of policy backtracking, such as the EU Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive, the EU Corporate Due-Diligence Directive or the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), has left some companies hesitant to act, and/or paralyzed by the complexity and uncertainty.
Yet now, more than ever, businesses must step up with a louder, more unified voice. And our mission is timely: Together as the leading voice of business, we activate and accelerate the transition toward a nature-positive economy for all.
No business will be successful and competitive, no economy will be resilient, and no society will be healthy in the future, if short-term decisions mean degrading the very foundations (i.e. nature!) on which they are built. We must stay united, strategic, cohesive and focused on where we can have the greatest collective impact.
Our coalition helped unify the corporate voice on global policy:
Nature firmly on the radar at COP30: Even though the political outcomes overall at COP30 fell short, strong indigenous participation and action was celebrated, and nature was firmly on the radar in Belém. Our collaboration with the We Mean Business Coalition on the COP30 Advocacy Toolkit gave the private sector a powerful, unified policy voice for integrating climate and nature solutions.
Supporting a united business voice on the oceans: A powerful collective of over 90 businesses from 27 countries came together to support the call to action at the UN Oceans Conference, and helped drive changes on issues from the high seas to deep-sea mining.
From global ambition to national reality
While we have seen some setbacks, we remain encouraged and excited by the global momentum of action developing worldwide. Our expanding national projects in Indonesia, Nigeria, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico and South Africa are helping bridge the gap between global ambition and national reality, enabling governments and businesses to collaborate to protect nature while strengthening economies.
Our visit to Indonesia and Thailand in May felt timely, and we saw strong commitments from both governments and leading companies.
This work is already shaping policy:
Chile and Malaysia have launched new Business and Biodiversity Action Plans, which formalize the private sector's role and provide clear roadmaps for companies to incorporate nature into their strategies.
Nigeria and Brazil have updated their National Biodiversity Plans (NBSAPs), moving towards mandatory nature disclosure and marking key progress in translating global goals into national law.
Nature is “normalized” in business
Amid the challenges, one theme has been truly energizing: nature has moved further into the mainstream across business and finance. Raising nature-related risks and opportunities – and grounding them in tangible business issues such as freshwater availability, soil health, and climate adaptation – has become “normalized.” The pace of ideas, activity and innovation is now so strong, it’s almost hard to keep up. It’s a testament to the incredible work going on across our coalition and beyond.
The ISSB’s announcement that it will draw on the TNFD framework as it moves into standard-setting for nature-related risks and opportunities is a major milestone. It signals that nature is becoming central to how companies assess risk, report performance and build long-term value. And it also gives confidence of standardization and future market uptake, for example we’ve seen Japan introduce its first Sustainability Disclosure Standards and China release its own Guidelines on Corporate Sustainable Disclosure.
We’ve also seen that leading businesses are embedding nature into their strategies, transition plans and decisions. The It’s Now for Nature Pulse - an analysis of 32 corporate nature strategies - reinforces that protecting, restoring and sustainably using nature strengthens climate action and long-term business resilience.
Crucially, the tools for action are also scaling rapidly, for example:
Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN)’s Step Up for Nature campaign is driving increased uptake of its science-based methods for setting nature targets.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched its Nature Action Portal, providing an important hub for business guidance on implementation.
Nature Metrics (NPI) continues to develop a set of nature metrics for terrestrial ecosystems to make data more accessible to companies and financial institutions.
From quiet to loud leadership
This year has been less about "shouting louder" and more about sharpening our arguments through real-life examples and internal action – a form of "quiet leadership". But quiet leadership alone will not be enough. As we head into a triple-COP year, we must remobilize and adopt a pragmatic, proactive and determined approach. We need a fundamental shift to give the confidence and courage for “loud leadership” once again and active, strategic, responsible policy engagement.
The role of business is absolutely vital to putting the Global Biodiversity Framework into action. Some companies may feel uncertain under current pressures, but now is the time to lean in, not pull back, on nature action and responsible policy engagement. It’s not just a moral imperative; it makes business sense.
Our 2030 strategy is clear: accelerate national-level implementation, drive ambitious global policy outcomes and scale corporate leadership on the road to COP17 and beyond.
Some questions for us to ponder as we enter 2026:
Where are the leaders? We need strengthened collective business leadership to ensure we show up intentional, aligned, and impactful at COP17.
Are companies aligned internally on their policy positions? We need companies to engage responsibly in their advocacy efforts with policymakers, trade associations and more. Many companies may be overlooking a hidden risk if they lack internal alignment and policy coherence.
What nature “hook” do you use to make it tangible? Nature needs to be embedded into real-world decisions across the political spectrum, with concrete entry points across sectors and geographies, backed by evidence that nature-positive action boosts resilience and competitiveness.
Can we flip the narrative into a positive one with the right incentives? We can’t be scared to tackle systemic barriers, like environmentally harmful subsidies, but we also need to be smart about creating positive momentum by focusing on financial incentives to level the playing field.
Next year is going to be about convergence, not just collaboration, intentionally aligning what we do and how we do it to prevent fragmentation and ensure every effort reinforces the next. None of us can make the change we need alone, but together we can.
Wishing you a safe and restful end of year, and that we all kick off 2026 with renewed energy and ambition.
Eva Zabey ~ CEO, Business for Nature