The UNEP Finance Initiative, a partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme and 170 banks, insurers and asset managers worldwide, recently launched a biodiversity and ecosystems services workstream. Twelve of UNEP FI’s member companies, joined by the Katoomba Group, the World Resources Institute (WRI), and Fauna & Flora International (FFI), will drive the work (1).
In early April 2007, a kick off meeting was hosted in London by KPMG. The gathering was chaired by UNEP FI Chair Martin Hancock, of the Australian bank Westpac (2).
Engaging global finance The new UNEP FI workstream is based on the need to engage the global financial services sector in identifying and addressing the risks and opportunities associated with biodiversity loss, the degradation of ecosystems services and the sustainable use of ecosystems and the services they provide. The lead institutions and civil society partners will explore regulatory frameworks, business operations and stakeholder concerns as the workstream unfolds.
The workstream will mirror UNEP FI’s work in the climate change arena where the partnership is well recognised for its participation in UNFCCC COPs. Also, the synergies and linkages between the climate work and the new biodiversity and ecosystems focus will be fully explored. The development of UNEP FI’s work comes partly as a response to the CBD COP-8 decision on business engagement in which UNEP FI is explicitly referred to (3).
As part of the scoping phase ahead of the launch, UNEP FI co-convened a closed-door meeting in April 2006 in New York with the World Resources Institute (WRI). Some fifteen financial institutions came together to identify and discuss the main elements of a potential workstream. At least three principal barriers to mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystems services considerations in the financial services sector were identified and these will be addressed as the 2007 work programme is rolled out. The focus for the group’s work this year will include:
Raising awareness of the business implications of the loss or degradation of ecosystems and the services they provide;
Strengthening the business case for action and providing the financial sector with information and analytical tools for adequate management of ecosystem services;
Opening dialogue between financial institutions (both public and private) and policy makers to identify and act on areas where the framework conditions under which business operates can be better aligned with ecosystems stewardship.
The work programme Specific activities will include the development of a ‘CEO Briefing’ that will highlight best practice case studies from the banking, insurance and asset management sectors. The brief, which will be launched for the UNEP FI Global Roundtable (4), will also propose actions required by the financial services sector and the policy-making community to make finance and capital markets work “for” biodiversity and ecosystems services. UNEP FI’s CEO Briefing series have been employed in various international arenas from climate change and water issues as well as to cover regional themes where the complex interface between finance, capital markets and sustainability needs explaining.
A second output will include a global corporate biodiversity benchmarking tool for financial institutions to evaluate and compare company performance in managing biodiversity-related risks and opportunities. UNEP FI and partners will work to expand the framework originally developed by UNEP FI member Insight Investment, the asset management arm of the HBoS Group, and Fauna and Flora International. The ultimate aim will be to create a global standard for best practice in biodiversity. Progress on this tool will be presented at COP-9.
Paul Clements-Hunt is Head of Unit,
UNEP Finance Initiative.
(1) The full list comprises Association Française des Entreprises Privées (AFEP), Citigroup, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Development Bank of South Africa, F&C Asset Management, Fauna and Flora International, Forest Trends, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, Insight Investment, KMPG, Nedbank, Nikko Asset Management, Rabobank Netherlands, Royal Bank of Canada - Banque Royale, Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) Group, the Katoomba Group, West LB, World Resources Institute (WRI).
(2)
http://www.unepfi.org/events/2007/london (3) Decision VIII/17 (
http://www.biodiv.org/decisions/default.aspx?m=COP-08&id=11031&lg=0) invites “businesses and relevant organizations and partnerships, such as the Finance Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme, to develop and promote the business case for biodiversity, to develop and promote the wider use of good practice guidelines, benchmarks, certification schemes and reporting guidelines and standards, in particular performance standards in line with the 2010 indicators, to share information on biodiversity status and trends, and to prepare and communicate to the Conference of the Parties any voluntary commitments that will contribute to the 2010 target”.
(4) Melbourne, Australia, 24-25 October (
http://www.unepfi.org/events/2007/roundtable).
