Why the Cop15 biodiversity discussions matter for us all

Blink and you could miss it. Not so long ago, the Cop27 climate conference was centre stage. For weeks, it was headline news. Sad to note, then, that the Cop15 biodiversity discussions, taking place right now in Montreal, are not being afforded the same amount of attention.

The gathering is scheduled to finish on 19 December, having commenced on 7 December, yet Cop15 has not featured heavily, if at all, in the mainstream press. Which is puzzling and disconcerting, because its central theme is just as vital to the long-term health and wellbeing of our planet, and of humankind.

It’s concerning, too, that business sections in particular are not devoting more coverage to Cop15, given that so much of what is being pored over, and the likely subsequent agreement, will affect how companies operate in future.

It’s especially troubling because this particular round of negotiations aims to carry the same significance for biodiversity that Cop21 in Paris did for climate change. That meeting in 2015 led to the Paris Agreement; this year’s Cop15 represents a similar, once-in-a-decade opportunity for governments to agree a way forward for biodiversity, or how we treat nature.

We depend on nature. It provides a stable climate, food, health, security, culture, economy and jobs. But we take it for granted. Worse, we’re actively destroying it – we’re devastating our rainforests, pillaging our seas, turning land into farmland and urban development. More than a million species face extinction, and global wildlife populations have fallen by an average of 69 per cent since 1970.

What the impact of this destruction will be is too early to tell, but it is bound to be bad, and it’s set to intensify unless we stop and change our attitudes and behaviour. And we need to do so before it is too late; before our disregard for the world around us takes us past the tipping point.

Taking a close interest in the proceedings in Montreal is Pietro Bertazzi, head of policy engagement for CDP, the global not-for-profit that runs the world’s standard environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions. Founded in 2000, and working with more than 680 financial institutions with over $130 (£106) trillion in assets, CDP uses the weight of the capital markets and the necessity for corporate procurement to motivate companies to disclose their environmental impacts and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests.

Nearly 20,000 organisations around the world will disclose their environmental data through CDP in 2022, including more than 18,700 companies – worth half the total global market capitalisation – and more than 1,100 cities, states and regions. CDP holds the largest environmental database in the world, and CDP scores are widely used to drive investment and purchasing decisions towards a zero-carbon, sustainable and resilient economy.

At present, the details of how companies treat nature are published voluntarily. Pressure can be brought to bear, but there is no automatic requirement for them to make this information public. Bertazzi and his colleagues want to change that, and they’re looking to Cop15 to take a further step in that direction.

Together with Business for Nature, a global coalition of more than 75 influential organisations and forward-thinking companies aiming to combine to produce a strong, single voice for reversing the loss of nature, CDP is campaigning for mandatory disclosure of the environmental risks and impacts across every business’s assorted activities.

“I am confident the need for mandatory disclosure will be acknowledged [by Cop15] as it’s a transformatory tool,” said Bertazzi. “We’re hoping for the strongest commitment by governments for disclosure to be made mandatory.”

He refuses to be pinned down, though, on the likelihood of that occurring. “You can’t get a figure out of me, so I will say 50/50,” he says, laughing. In the final wording of an agreement, when it comes, “It may not be worded as ‘mandatory’ as such, but could be ‘requiring’ – because in diplomacy there’s never black and white, there are many shades of grey,” he explains.

Companies should be keeping a watchful eye on developments at Cop15, says Bertazzi. If all goes well, Montreal will produce a new global biodiversity framework, setting standards until 2030, when a new framework will be introduced (Cop 15 was meant to take place in 2020 but was postponed by the pandemic, hence its once-in-a-decade significance). Biodiversity suffers for lack of interest, Bertazzi believes, because unlike the climate crisis, it does not generate headline-grabbing numbers that the world can understand. There’s no “net zero” or “1.5C” to aim for. “We don’t have an equivalent on our side. It’s a point of difference between the two Cops: we’re looking at the overall purpose of a common agenda to address biodiversity.”

The same tensions and differences apply, however. The developing economies, led by Brazil, India and China, are also having to ask tough questions of themselves. In the case of Cop15 and biodiversity, says Bertazzi, it’s whether they’re ready to move beyond climate change, to integrate biodiversity into their laws and regulations.

There is one point of departure: in biodiversity there is not the North-South divide that exists in the climate crisis, so countries such as Rwanda, for instance, are pushing for greater biodiversity.

Soon, company bosses will be expected to have taken on board Montreal 2022. They might well be kicking themselves for not having got across it earlier.