In December 2022 the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted under the UN Convention on BIological Diversity. As national governments now turn to implementation, we propose five key areas to watch in the coming years.
In December last year, a new global framework to protect and restore nature was agreed. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) COP15, includes four ambitious goals to achieve by 2050
The new global framework marked a step change in how we approach the conservation and restoration of biodiversity and comes at a time of increased focus on the role of the private sector, financial disclosure and the climate-biodiversity nexus.
The adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBR) was near universal when it was signed by 196 signatories to the CBD. This comes at a time when stakes could not be much higher; nature is declining at an unprecedented rate, threatening global economic stability and humanity’s ability to thrive on Earth.
In addition to four long-term goals for 2050 to protect nature, the GBF establishes 23 action-oriented targets for urgent action over the next decade to 2030.
Implementation of the GBF and achievement of its goals and targets will be supported through national biodiversity strategies and action plans. Nations are expected to develop these along with national reporting against GBF monitoring frameworks.
Similar to the Paris Agreement, which also avoided top-down multilaterally agreed national targets, the success of the GBF will rely on strong political will and a targeted set of incentive structures and enabling frameworks at the domestic level to deliver on implementation.
As national governments now turn to implementation, we propose five key areas to watch in the coming years.
Among the 23 targets are government commitments to protect, conserve and restore at least 30 percent of the earth’s land and water by 2030 (an uplift from 17 percent and 10 percent respectively under the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the predecessor to the GBF). As part of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC), The Hon. Minister Tanya Plibersek MP helped secure the 30 by 30 target in the GBF and will be responsible for driving its implementation in her position on the HAC's Steering Committee.
A component of the GBF also includes commitments to reduce risks and impacts from pollution. This includes targets to reduce pollution from pesticides and hazardous chemicals by at least half, eliminate plastic pollution and half global food waste .
Although the GBF is not legally binding, national governments will be tasked with monitoring, measuring and demonstrating their progress toward the targets by preparing national biodiversity plans. At a national level, the GBF requires the implementation of national biodiversity strategies by countries to be financed in-part through collectively mobilising at least US$200 billion in investment annually by 2030, while directing at least US$500 billion per year away from incentives and subsidies harmful to biodiversity. Implications of this domestically are already being seen, with the Australian Federal Government’s new agenda for environmental protection and restoration.
The new national environmental standards and national Environmental Protection Agency were announced immediately following the conclusion of COP15 and will enable a shift towards clearer benchmarking of environmental outcomes across matters of National Environmental Significance under the EPBC Act, First Nations and community engagement, participation and consultation, , regional planning and environmental offsets, as well as stronger action on national enforcement and compliance with environmental protection laws in Australia.
Outside of the GBF negotiations, Australia has also agreed to host the 2024 global Nature Positive Summit aiming to encourage private investment in nature repair projects, share technical knowledge on increasing private finance in nature and better measure nature’s economic value. State governments will also follow suit, and a number already are.
Targets 14 and 15 emphasise the importance of integrating biodiversity and its conservation into business, across all levels of government and across all sectors including into national accounting frameworks. Read together with Target 21, ensuring the best available data, information and knowledge is accessible to decision-makers and the public will be an essential guide for effective and equitable governance and knowledge management.
Historically, national statistical accounting systems excluded the value of nature and ecosystems and the associated flows of services to the economy, instead focusing on measures of production and consumption in society. Without this structural incentive to compile data on natural capital, its associated value to the economy has been largely invisible in policy and decision-making processes.
In response to growing understanding of our reliance on components of the environment, and the interconnectedness between nature and the economy, accounting frameworks to measure the extent, condition and variance among ecosystems have proliferated across the private sector in recent years. While in the public sector, the SEEA framework was developed to provide a robust environmental accounting structure that could be integrated into existing national accounting systems.
Nations are recognising the importance of environmental accounts and statistics for collecting and organising information that supports both environmental and economic planning and decision-making. During COP15, the Australian and United States Governments developed a joint statement on their intention to share knowledge and learnings on natural capital accounts; an intention which extends to facilitating global leadership and encouraging other nations to incorporate nature into economic decision-making.
The joint statement builds on the Australian Government’s continuing work to integrate natural capital accounting frameworks across all levels of decision-making. As monitoring and reporting capability increases and datasets are compiled, the data will prove essential for developing the national biodiversity plans and strategies contemplated under the GBF and driving national policy implementation for achieving the 30 by 30 target.
Target 15 recognises the need for countries to take legal, administrative or policy measures to encourage and enable business “[to] … monitor, assess and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity” including through supply and value chains to reduce biodiversity-related risks to business.
In the wake of trends observed across national jurisdictions to implement climate-related financial disclosures, the anticipated finalisation of both the International Sustainability Standards Board standards and the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures in 2023, there is a clear signal that disclosure frameworks are set to move beyond climate, with nature becoming a clear focal point.
At present, there are no mandatory climate or nature-related disclosure frameworks in place in Australia. However, that landscape is set to change in 2023 following the Australian Government’s recent proposal for a national mandatory-climate related financial disclosure framework. The consultation document released signals government thinking as to the potential for future expansion into sustainability and nature-related disclosures once these international standards are finalised.
While not yet mandatory, many ASX-listed entities are already disclosing climate-related financial risks and opportunities in line with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Framework. Amid increasing pressure from investors for Australian companies to measure and report on wider sustainability-related risks and opportunities, businesses will need to prepare for regulated corporate disclosure obligations that align with international sustainability and nature-related standards that go beyond climate in the coming years.
Target 19 recognises the importance of increasing the level of financial resources for the implementation of effective and timely biodiversity strategies and actions plans. Of the mechanisms proposed, the GBF recognises biodiversity credits as an innovate tool for leveraging private sector finance for protecting and restoring biodiversity. The growing momentum for biodiversity credit markets presents significant opportunities for organisations to mitigate their nature-related risks, more actively manage their nature-related impacts and vulnerabilities, and invest in their long-term resilience by directly investing in the preservation of the ecosystems they operate in.
Not to be confused with ‘biodiversity offsets’, which are a means to compensate for activities that cause unavoidable impacts on the environment that cannot be mitigated, and have been a creature of Australian environmental regulation for a long time; biodiversity credits schemes provide a platform for financing the enhancement or protection of biodiversity. As a form of environmental market, biodiversity credit schemes provide a significant opportunity to drive private finance into ecosystem restoration and management. Voluntary biodiversity markets are still fairly nascent, however the Australian Government has grasped onto the potential opportunities in establishing a domestic scheme. Late last year, an exposure draft was released for legislation to establish a ‘Nature Repair Market’ comprising a transferable biodiversity certificate scheme seeking to protect and restore nature on privately held land.
The design and implementation of biodiversity credit markets will be of crucial importance to ensure they deliver genuine and enduring biodiversity improvements – a topic which we expect to become a focal point of discussions on policy action for biodiversity going forward.
Goal C and Targets 22 and 23 address commitments to take effective measures at all levels to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of monetary and non-monetary benefits arising from the use of genetic resources and digital sequence information on genetic resources, including any traditional knowledge associated with those resources. More broadly, the Targets also aim to ensure full, equitable and inclusive, and gender-responsive representation and participation in decision-making processes, and proper access to justice and information relating to biodiversity by indigenous peoples and local communities.
The focus on valuing indigenous knowledge in the context of conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity hopefully sends a strong signal for financial investment into, and the integration of traditional knowledge into western science practices to improve conservation outcomes and the sustainable use of biodiversity.
The 2021 Australia State of the Environment report acknowledged that while Australia is not currently doing enough, there is growing recognition of a need to respect and apply Indigenous knowledge and practices alongside western science methodologies in the management of Country, indicating the enormous potential to create positive change for people and Country going forward. These sentiments were echoed by the independent review of the EPBC Act in 2020, resulting in work to develop a new national environmental standard to promote First Nations engagement and participation in decision-making. That program of reforms will also include a new national environmental standard for community engagement and consultation. The Federal Government has signaled that it will be engaging closely with stakeholders and partners during the first half of 2023 to progress the reforms, it is likely the Government will seek to fulfil its commitments under the GBF through this program of reforms.