COP15 and Scotland’s natural capital – a critical foundation for Scotland’s prosperity
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Members of the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital Steering Group recently wrote to the First Minster to reiterate how Scotland’s current and future economic prosperity relies heavily on the protection and valuation of its natural capital. The group urge the government to embed natural capital thinking into the redesign of the agricultural policy, the National Marine Plan, the Biodiversity Strategy and the Natural Environment Bill, encouraging “legally binding nature targets”.
The letter is being sent ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) happening in Montreal 7 – 19 December 2022, to harness the momentum around the expected adoption of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, likely to galvanise transformative action by governments and impact the responsibilities of businesses towards biodiversity.
Action Target 15 of the framework expects all businesses by 2030 to:
- Assess and report on their dependencies and impacts on biodiversity
- Reduce negative impacts by at least half
- Increase positive impacts
More than 330 business and finance institutions from 52 countries with a combined revenue of more than $1.5 trillion have signed up to the Business for Nature #MakeitMandatory campaign calling for world leaders to adopt Target 15 at the conference and make nature assessment and disclosure compulsory.
The Scottish Forum recently held a workshop on business rebalance for nature, exploring how nature-based disclosures could be a gamechanger for businesses in Scotland. We also examined how the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) risk management framework could enable organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks and opportunities. You can read the full summary of the workshop here and watch the presentations on our YouTube channel.
If you’re organisation is interested to apply the risk management framework and would like to understand it in more detail, please save the date for our upcoming workshop on Tuesday 14 March 9.30am – 12.30pm GMT for A Practical Workshop on Using the TNFD.
COP15 must be a pivotal moment in tackling the nature crisis and business must be play an important part. The Scottish Forum on Natural Capital stands ready to help the Scottish Government progress the COP15 agenda and engage the business community in the process.