Guide on biodiversity integration launched at COP15 side event

11 December 2022 – During a side event to COP15 today, Clinton Adas (HSBC AM) launched the Guide ‘Act now! The why and how of biodiversity integration by financial institutions’ on behalf of the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation. The Guide provides financial institutions with practical guidance on how to integrate biodiversity into their financing activities and decision-making, including how to start measuring impact and setting targets.

Acting now

Biodiversity is a relatively new topic for many, and a lot is currently ‘work in progress’: global targets are being negotiated, biodiversity footprinting tools are emerging, regulations and standards are being drafted. Amidst these developments, the new Guide ‘Act now! The why and how of biodiversity integration by financial institutions’ aims to provide a pragmatic answer to the question: ‘What can financial institutions do now?’. Because, if we are to reverse nature loss in this decade, the finance sector needs to act now. This Guide shows what action is possible with the data and tools currently available.

The V-process

The Guide is structured around a five-step process, the V-process, which is proposed as a possible plan of action for financial institutions that wish to start acting on biodiversity now: 1) Explore, 2) Assess & Prioritize, 3) Integrate & Set targets, 4) Act, 5) Track progress. The V-process allows financial institutions to act upon several frameworks, standards, commitments, and recommendations at once (e.g., work by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN), Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, European Central Bank, and others).

Consultation and practical experience

The Guide on biodiversity integration by financial institutions was co-authored by six active members of the FfB Foundation’s Impact Assessment working group: Co-Chair Liudmila Strakodonskaya (AXA IM); and members Clinton Adas (HSBC Asset Management), Hadrien Gaudin-Hamama (Mirova), Alexis Gouin (Federal Finance), Petra Mannessen (Rabobank), and Deepshikha Singh (Groupe La Française) and builds on their practical experience and knowledge. The Guide was reviewed by expert Annelisa Grigg (Globalbalance). Furthermore, the Guide leverages the results of the consultation organised by the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation in November/December 2021. The consultation explored where the financial sector stands with regard to integrating biodiversity issues into financial decision-making.

COP15 side event

Clinton Adas (HSBC AM), launched the Guide during the ‘Biodiversity Impact & Dependency Assessment in the Finance Sector – The time to act is now’ COP15 side event. This session, co-organized by PBAF, the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, UNEP-FI and Capitals Coalition, aimed to build the confidence of financial institutions and their regulators that biodiversity-related impacts and dependencies can already be assessed – and that the results of such assessments can be used to steer investments from negative impact to a positive impact.

Read the Guide ‘Act now! The why and how of biodiversity integration by financial institutions’

Read more about the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation activities at COP15