Mother Nature: sharpening our mind to the challenge ahead

Nature is all around us and how we interact with it varies from person to person. Having just been on maternity leave I have spent a lot of time walking in nature, enjoying the changing of the seasons, the fresh air, the greenery and have felt its calming effect as I tried to encourage my daughter to go to sleep. Studies have proven that spending time in nature can have a positive affect on health, reducing stress and promoting healing.

I was also reflecting how, in that instant, my enjoyment of nature was very direct and personal, but we enjoy nature through many different avenues. When we talk about nature we often think of tigers, waterfalls, the dulcet tones of Sir David Attenborough; we don’t think about the economy, our busy modern lives, and business and financial systems. But nature and society are connected. Nature provides us with everything upon which we depend; simply put it underpins our society and economies.  

On returning to work I have had the opportunity to reflect on how the nature agenda has shifted in the last twelve months. So much has changed and yet at the same time so much has stayed the same.  We are starting to see signals that nature is beginning to be recognised as essential to our economy, not least with biodiversity beginning to be reflected in legislation, steps being made to incorporate nature into financial disclosure frameworks and many companies committing to becoming nature positive. Nature positive now seems to be common language amongst some business practitioners, which is promising; however, I’m not convinced that everyone fully understands what this relatively new term means or what to do to deliver it. A nature positive economy is one in which business, government and others take action at scale to minimise the drivers and pressures fuelling the degradation of nature, actively improve the state of nature itself and boost nature’s contributions to people.  

We have seen the Dasgupta Review illustrating how our unsustainable engagement with Nature is endangering the prosperity of current and future generations; recent estimates suggest we would need 1.6 Earths to maintain humanity's current way of life. There are practical insights provided by  the WEF identifying nature positive pathways that could shift us towards a nature-positive economy with estimates that delivering these pathways will generate $10trillion per year and create 395 million jobs by 2030.

The gauntlet has been thrown down and there is some incredible progress being made. Last year G7 leaders announced that “our world must not only become net zero, but also nature positive, for the benefit of both people and the planet”. Political leaders from 93 countries have signed the Leaders Pledge for Nature to reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030. This is an important step as leaders shift from ‘do less harm’ attitudes to committing to reduce impact and create positive outcomes that benefit others. The corporate voice is growing as more than 1,000 companies are calling on governments to adopt policies now to reverse nature loss in this decade. We have just seen the release of TNFD’s (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) framework to integrate nature-related financial risks into corporate and financial decision making, an important step by the market to tackle the risk of nature loss. And, of course, there are the ongoing negotiations to finalise the draft of the Global Biodiversity Framework – a framework that is hoped to be equivalent to the Paris Agreement call to action on climate change but this time to provide a framework to act on nature. Imagine the momentum that can be created once there is an apex goal, something similar to 1.5 degrees for climate, for nature. 

But there are still many questions: How can we combine efforts to deliver on climate and nature targets? How can we secure sustainable supply chains? How can companies engage with Nature-based Solutions? What part can regenerative agriculture play? What shift is needed from consumers? What corporate, financial and policy levers need to be pulled to make the systemic changes to our economy? And how can we leverage key bodies to unblock the system in order to deliver nature-positive?

The direction of travel is clear - global policy is being made, regulations are being set, disclosure requirements are all being established. The next step is for businesses, financiers and policy makers to align, and to do so quickly. CISL is working at the cutting edge with leaders across the economy to shape the operating context for business in favour of organisations that deliver value to society and nature. Afterall, we aren’t just talking about ensuring we can still have our day-to-day interactions with nature, what is at stake is even larger – our global and systemic relationship with nature.  With a new baby my mind has never been more focused on wanting to ensure a world full of hope, harmony and happiness, and how crucial a part nature plays in that world.