Foundation working groups updates

When the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation was set up in March 2021, three working groups were launched. Take stock of what we have been doing since then.

Within the Impact Assessment Working Group, consisting of 17 organisations and chaired by Liudmila Strakodonskaya (AXA IM), members regularly share use cases and lessons learned on biodiversity measurement in order to build understanding of the strengths, limitations and assumptions of different measurement approaches. Also, a subgroup is mapping existing data and methodologies (providers), scientific bases and regulation requirements, analysing what data is missing for all biodiversity topics to be covered.

Within the Engagement with Companies Working Group, members regularly share experiences and new developments on biodiversity-related engagement with companies. With the aim of identifying collective biodiversity engagement opportunities, the group has made an inventory of ongoing collective engagement initiatives. Some members are setting up new collective engagement initiatives and invite others to join. The working group is chaired by Sonya Likhtman (Federated Hermes International) and Arthur van Mansvelt (Achmea IM) and convenes 20 asset owners, asset managers, insurers and banks.

The Public Policy Advocacy Working Group, with representatives from 14 Pledge signatories, is focused on influencing an ambitious outcome of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15. The group is developing a financial institution statement together with US-based investor network Ceres to urge governments to agree on a transformative Global Biodiversity Framework and accelerate action on biodiversity. Furthermore, we recently got accepted as an official Observer Member of the Convention. With this status we can make direct interventions during the meetings of the Convention and its Protocols. Sonya Likhtman (Federated Hermes International) currently acts as the interim chair of this working group and brought forward our key points, including the need to increase the level of ambition and create an enabling regulatory environment, during the OEWG on August 25th.

The Foundation now convenes 28 active members. Are you interested to join the collaborative action? Find more information here.