Countdown to COP16: are businesses and government turning the tide on nature loss?

We all rely on nature: our societies, our economies and our businesses fundamentally depend on nature and its services. But nature is in crisis. Biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate and the ecosystems that sustain life are under threat.  

In 2022, 196 countries adopted the historic Biodiversity Plan (also known as the Global Biodiversity Framework), a roadmap for how to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. 

Businesses and governments are taking actions to reverse this trend. But is it enough?  

While there are reasons to be hopeful and progress has been made, much more needs to be done. Companies are increasingly aware of the risks of nature loss and are taking steps and making commitments to reduce their footprint, unfortunately this is not the norm and many still lack a deep understanding of their dependencies on nature. This is a critical gap that must be addressed. 

Governments have a crucial role to play to enable business transformation, by providing direction and a stable environment for change. While some have made strides in establishing protected areas, contributing towards biodiversity finance and implementing regulations to protect biodiversity, many are still falling short. Environmentally Harmful Subsidies to the tune of $2.6 trillion, continue to massively incentivize activities that harm nature.   

At COP16 we need business and governments to work together through ambitious and radical collaboration. Governments need to strengthen policies that incentivize nature-positive actions and hold businesses accountable.   Businesses must scale up actions to protect, restore and sustainably use nature to contribute towards a nature-positive economy for all by 2030.  

This is the race of our lives. We now need exponential, decisive and collaborative action at COP16 and beyond.   

For a more detailed explanation of each data point, please take a look at the annex. This supplementary resource offers in-depth analysis, expanded data sets and additional context.