While the world focuses on carbon emissions – and rightly so – we often ignore the other side of the same coin, namely biodiversity loss. With the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals overwhelmingly dependent on biodiversity, it’s vital to expand our ESG horizons and understand our dependencies if we are to halt this decline.
The investment community can start by understanding the impacts and dependencies on biodiversity – and where they come about in the portfolio. We as the human race can also start recognising and paying for natural capital.
The global public has become well versed in the climate crisis and social issues, and biodiversity is next on the agenda – particularly as our relationship with food accelerates biodiversity loss becomes increasingly apparent and rises up the agenda of governments worldwide.
All eyes are on COP26 in Glasgow, but let’s not let the forthcoming (and previously postponed) COP15 in Kunming, China slip. The two are inextricably intertwined.
By Romil Patel, former International and ESG Editor
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