Is biodiversity the next big thing investors will demand?

– Biodiversity is being increasingly recognized as something we need to account for.
– But only a third of large companies are reporting on their biodiversity efforts so far.

Leaders Arena’s Christian Plath reports that biodiversity and natural capital are emerging areas of focus for investors including BlackRock, yet many large companies are under-reporting the potential risks according to his company’s latest study. Only 32% of large listed companies are disclosing on biodiversity initiatives within their business operations. Key challenges for companies include a lack of common definitions and standardized reporting metrics, as always…

And here’s a reminder why biodiversity is a problem – this article by Scientific American is entitled “Global Diversity is in Free Fall” explains the problem. It explains how a U.N. report reveals that countries worldwide have failed to meet key conservation targets set for 2020 and what that means. And here is a note from KPMG’s Richard Betts:

New study suggests that potentially as low as just 3% of world’s terrestrial ecosystems remain faunally intact but that by reintroducing a small number of important species to some damaged areas, up to 20% of the world’s land could be restored to ecological intactness. This needs to be a top priority in this the UN decade of ecosystem restoration as conserving our remaining natural assets and restoring at scale are essential to tackling both the climate and biodiversity crises.