Advocacy campaign calls for ‘Paris-style’ agreement on nature at COP15

Three hundred and thirty companies from over 50 countries have signed up to an advocacy campaign calling for political leaders to make biodiversity-related disclosures mandatory. The “Make it Mandatory” campaign is coordinated by the non-profit organisation Business for Nature. The stated objective of the campaign is to call for “mandatory requirements for all large businesses and financial institutions to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity by 2030”. Signatories include companies and financial institutions with a collective revenue of $1.5trn. These include asset management companies such as Schroders. The report that explains the campaign was released in October 2022 and argued that a Paris-style consensus on biodiversity is key and voluntary action is not enough: “The evidence gathered here shows that companies across the world are looking to world leaders to implement policies that require business to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on nature. It is both desired and necessary to put us on the path to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030”. The report and the campaign are expected to be discussed at COP15, currently underway in Montreal.