- 43% jump in biodiversity reporting after Global Biodiversity Framework adopted
- Companies worth 33% of global stock markets now reporting water data to CDP
- But fewer than 1 in 10 companies assess business dependency on biodiversity, and wider understanding of financial impacts of nature remains limited
23 October 2024 (London): Business momentum in measuring nature and biodiversity impacts is growing quickly, according to new data from CDP released today, as governments gather in Colombia for COP16. For the implementation and success of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) set in COP15, disclosure is key, and CDP’s data is critical to ensuring its goals are met.
In the year after the adoption of the GBF in 2022, often dubbed the Paris Agreement for nature, nature-related disclosures to CDP grew steadily, with a 43% increase in companies disclosing biodiversity data, a 23% increase on water, and a 10% rise on forests.
Target 15 of the global biodiversity agreement calls on governments to mandate corporate reporting, and CDP data shows that thousands of businesses are already starting to disclose this data to the market.
The analysis also shows a 20% increase in the number of companies (around 1800) assessing the impact their value chains have on biodiversity, further demonstrating the growing momentum towards transparency and accountability.
Beyond biodiversity, freshwater management is also gaining traction, with a 24% increase in companies evaluating their water dependencies from 2022 to 2023. This contributed to a corresponding 22% reduction in corporate water use, demonstrating that transparency drives tangible action towards freshwater security.
Despite positive trends in reporting, CDP’s growing corporate nature dataset also reveals clear blind spots in corporate understanding and action. Fewer than 10% of companies yet assess their dependency on biodiversity, despite the fact that biodiversity loss is estimated to cost the global economy between $4 and $20 trillion annually.
CDP’s data also highlights a slow response in understanding and addressing financial risks related to nature. While many companies have now identified business risks related to water and forests, only around half of these reported risks include a financial impact figure. Just a small minority of banks and investors said that they finance nature-based solutions (17%) or sustainable agriculture activities (23%). And recent CDP-WWF research into the world’s globally systemically important banks found that more than half fail to engage their clients on nature.
However, in a sign of investors' growing interest in funding biodiversity action, 11 major French institutional investors have launched a new €100 million fund at COP16. The first-of-its-kind fund will use CDP biodiversity data to invest in companies offering solutions to reduce biodiversity loss, but also those in high-impact sectors showing credible signs of transition.
Sherry Madera, CEO at CDP said “Nature supports our entire economy, so every business must understand how they depend on it, what the risks are, and then act quickly. Our data shows we are seeing more and more companies coming alive to this, bringing nature into the boardrooms. Strong data is key to hitting the 2030 targets and driving change across the economy. As the world's data platform, CDP has been driving comparable information on biodiversity for over 15 years, and we know how disclosure drives better decisions. The Global Biodiversity Framework rightly highlights the role of corporate reporting in pushing action. At COP16, governments need to use this data in their national plans, set up effective tracking, and reward the businesses that lead the way”
Eva Zabey, CEO of Business For Nature said: "Agreeing mandatory assessment and disclosure of nature at CBD COP15 was a landmark moment, but now comes the hard part. While companies are slowly adopting nature-positive practices and setting nature strategies, progress on nature lags significantly behind climate action. Today's CDP data confirms this and highlights the risk businesses continue to face by failing to assess their dependencies on nature. At COP16 we need to see governments and businesses pick up the pace. Governments must introduce ambitious regulations and policies that will unlock corporate nature action. For businesses, the good news is that there is accessible and streamlined guidance to report on their nature-related impact and dependencies through CDP, and ensure that they are contributing to a nature-positive economy."
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Notes to editor
For more information, or exclusive interviews, please contact:
- Elvis Moyo, CDP, [email protected]