Repost: Why the Rome biodiversity talks mark a turning point for business
This opinion piece by Eva Zabey was originally published in Business Green
The resumed UN Biodiversity negotiations (COP16.2) in Rome delivered a clear biodiversity finance roadmap, signaling a turning point for business leadership and action. Amidst geopolitical challenges, and after intensive negotiations, governments successfully adopted a strategy to unlock at least $200 billion annually by 2030 to bridge the biodiversity finance gap. But they cannot do this without business and finance as a key partner.
It was positive to see the strong resolve from the COP Presidency and governments who worked tirelessly to foster consensus in both Cali and Rome to make “peace with nature”. Now action – and finance - must flow.
Achievements in Rome
A permanent financial mechanism under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ensures that biodiversity finance will extend beyond 2030. The resource mobilization strategy is a significant step, though agreeing a dedicated fund was deferred to COP18 in 2028. Critically, the strategy calls for increased private sector investment alongside government contributions via the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF). Within the agreement, governments also reaffirmed their commitment to reforming environmentally harmful subsidies, aligning with Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, where so far action has been slow.
A landmark ministerial dialogue for Finance and Environment ministers will be established, creating a high-level platform for advancing biodiversity finance discussions. This will also help embed the value of nature across all sectors – otherwise known as “mainstreaming”.
The Cali Fund's launch on 25 February was a positive milestone that aims to enable and accelerate corporate contributions to nature conservation, ensuring equitable benefit-sharing, particularly with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. To ensure the Fund's success, there needs to be clear mechanisms and robust governance and accountability to make it practical for companies to contribute.
Governments in Rome also agreed to the Global Biodiversity Framework’s monitoring framework which will track progress effectively, reinforcing a “whole-of-society” approach. The reporting mechanism will incorporate contributions from non-state actors, including the private sector. The headline indicator on Target 15 will monitor governments’ “legal, administrative, or policy measures” that encourage and enable business and finance to take action, assess and disclose their nature-related dependencies, impacts and risks.
Implications for business
These decisions offer certainty and opportunity. Investing in nature is not mere compliance but a strategic necessity and opportunity for long-term economic resilience, as all businesses rely on nature’s services such as raw materials, freshwater and pollination.
Businesses must prioritize the following areas:
Assess and disclose nature-related impacts and contribute to Target 15 of the GBF. The momentum is already building, with over 500 companies preparing to disclose through the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and more than 150 setting science-based targets for nature through the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN). Business for Nature’s Nature Strategy Handbook also provides recommendations for all businesses on how to set a forward-looking nature strategy and where to find useful tools and resources.
Contribute to resource mobilization efforts and the Cali Fund. While governments have committed to identify and reform all environmentally harmful subsidies (Target 18), businesses also have a role to play in understanding their own dependencies and to collaborate with governments to ensure successful reforms, invest in nature-positive initiatives and support innovative finance mechanisms. The launch of the Cali Fund just four months after the initial agreement in Colombia represents a vital step in mobilizing private sector finance.
Collaborate on National Biodiversity Action and Strategy Plans (NBSAPs). Countries were meant to submit new NBSAPs by October 2024, but, so far, three-quarters of countries have yet to do so. Businesses can and should engage in the process of developing business and sectoral action plans to encourage, enable, or require the private sector to contribute to the implementation of the GBF. This goes beyond the targets highlighted above: indeed, business contributions are essential to meet all of the GBF’s targets and goals.
Businesses push ahead
Forward-thinking companies are demonstrating practical actions to protect, restore and sustainably use nature and its resources, while transforming business models.
More than 30 company nature strategies are part of ‘It’s Now for Nature’, a global movement mobilizing businesses to act on nature and contribute to a nature-positive economy by 2030. And with nature strategy accelerator programmes in several markets, we expect this number to climb rapidly.
Companies like L’OCCITANE Group, implementing a regenerative agricultural framework and Veolia, with its GreenUp Strategic Program to decarbonize, depollute and regenerate resources, aren't just minimizing business risk – they're contributing to nature’s recovery.
Financial institutions are also stepping up. For example, Rabobank has developed the AGRI3 Fund in cooperation with the Dutch government and the United Nations Environment Programme to support deforestation-free sustainable agriculture and improve rural livelihoods.
Business for Nature, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBSCD) and others have also developed guidance for 14 sectors. Built on the high-level business actions, the guidance outlines the sector-specific actions businesses should take to contribute to halting and reversing nature loss.
The road to COP30
As we look ahead to the UNFCCC COP30, maintaining nature's prominence on the global agenda is non-negotiable. Climate change, nature loss and social inequality are interconnected crises demanding integrated solutions that deliver multiple benefits for people, the planet and our economies.
Closing the $700 billion annual funding gap necessitates a radical shift in both public and private finance. This means dismantling the $2.6 trillion in harmful subsidies and redirecting the $5 trillion of private finance that currently, and unintentionally, fuels nature's destruction.
There is no business without nature. The economic imperative is clear, the policy direction is set, and the time for incremental change is over.
We have a shared responsibility and interest in managing our relationship with nature. Regardless of the political climate, we must continue to forge a collaborative, decisive path towards a nature-positive future, ensuring that the momentum ignited in Rome becomes a catalyst for lasting global transformation.