As world leaders approach once-in-a-decade decisions on climate change, food systems and biodiversity that will shape the post-pandemic global economy and the future of life on Earth, this week’s UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) offers them a fulsome menu for food system transformation. Especially welcome are offerings on boosting nature-positive production to help deliver on the fundamental human right to healthy and nutritious food while operating within planetary boundaries.

If you follow the money, it’s obvious that the financial sector is taking the climate crisis seriously, including through setting net-zero targets and engaging in climate-related risk disclosure. Yet only now is it waking up to nature loss and its relationship to climate.

With the release of the latest report from the IPCC on climate science, the planetary emergency sirens are sounding louder than ever. And as the world awaits the outcome of crucial international climate talks in Glasgow later this year, momentum is building for ambitious global action that delivers net-zero greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2050. Through initiatives such as the Race to Zero and the We Mean Business Coalition, business is playing its part — but with the most severe impacts of climate breakdown being felt by the most vulnerable sectors of society who have contributed least to the crisis, and whose livelihoods often depend on a resilient natural environment, companies must put equality and justice, as well investment in nature-based solutions, at the heart of attempts to tackle climate change.

The loss of biodiversity and natural habitats is becoming a major risk for companies. As climate breakdown and forest loss feed off one another, they increase the likelihood of natural disasters and the unleashing of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19. Businesses everywhere are increasingly vulnerable. The much awaited Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure was launched recently to provide a guide for how companies and financial institutions should navigate the business and financial should navigate the business and financial risks of Nature loss.

The recent communiqué from G20 Finance Ministers contains a number of positive elements, not least is the recognition that tackling climate change and biodiversity loss, and promoting environmental protection, are urgent global priorities. This is a welcome change in tone from the G20 statements of the past four years constrained by a lack of leadership from the US and reflecting, in particular, the shift since the Climate Summit convened by President Biden last April.

Perhaps the well-known maxim in retail that the customer is, without question, always right, and if not a god, certainly a king or a queen, isn't always true. But when it comes to nature, business should listen to the customer: a key finding in a new global report from The Economist Intelligence Unit, commissioned by WWF, shows a staggering 71% rise in online searches for sustainable goods globally over the past five years.

The critical role of nature in supporting our health, enterprise and prosperity should not be in doubt. One estimate puts its value to the global economy at $44 trillion – more than half of global GDP. Yet until very recently, business decision-making has ignored this most precious asset. It is a strange state of affairs then that shareholder activists are still allowed to prevail, fiddling while Rome burns. This seems especially egregious in the case of the French food group Danone, where activist investors seeking to prioritize shareholder returns have succeeded in ousting chairman and CEO Emmanuel Faber, an advocate for the environment and sustainability.

Delfin Ganapin, WWF Governance Practice Leader, and Lin Li, WWF Global Policy and Advocacy Director, argue that securing the rights and recognising the roles and contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities are critical in creating a just, green, resilient future. Around the world, Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have lived sustainably for generations in their ‘territories of life’. Today, their lands are found in 75% of the world’s ecoregions, account for at least 24% of the total carbon stored in the world’s tropical forests, and include about 40% of all lands listed by national governments as managed for conservation. Safeguarding these lands will help tackle nature loss.

In his recent Review on the Economics of Biodiversity, commissioned by the UK Treasury to inform the international response to nature loss, Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta reminds us of a simple truth: we are part of nature, and embedded within it, not separate from it. Our economies, livelihoods and well-being all depend on this most precious asset. And yet our failure to recognise this relationship is costing us dearly and putting our future at risk.

Nature is in freefall - because of the way we live. Knowingly or blindly, we too often treat natural resources as inexhaustible and expendable, while in reality, natural systems cannot replace resources as fast as we consume them. Deforestation, habitat destruction, and land conversion for agriculture, driven by the choices we make about how to use natural resources, have led to an average decline in global wildlife populations of 68% since 1970. The consequences for humanity may be fatal. Nature loss accelerates climate breakdown and increases the risk of emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19. For our own survival, we must all change our behaviour in ways that help protect and restore nature and a living planet.

In advance of the Finance in Common Summit, Margaret Kuhlow argues that we need Public Development Banks to invest in a job-rich recovery that rebuilds for economic, environmental, and social resilience.

The global pandemic has created profound desire for change. A recent 28-country poll found that 86% of people want to see a fairer, more sustainable world after COVID-19. And new consumer research suggests that given the right incentives and guidance, many are also willing to make healthy, more sustainable lifestyles choices. This is an opportunity for business, especially for those companies able to offer easy, affordable solutions, and help us make better, healthier choices. With some parts o

Where the Atlantic and Sahara embrace, and mighty ocean and boundless desert fuse, a vast coastal wetland stretches the length of the Mauritanian coast, its seemingly infinite sandbanks, islands, mudflats, lagoons and seagrass beds a place of contrast and diversity. Together, they form the magnificent Banc d’Arguin.

Today, leading businesses such as Carrefour, H&M, JD.com, Natura, and Walmart have called on governments around the world to protect and restore nature, recognizing it as the foundation of our health and prosperity. And in an open letter the Business for Nature coalition, representing nearly 50 influential business and civil society organisations, is urging others to join them in leading the call for a ‘nature positive’ future.

Legend has it that high in the heart of the Balkans, two shepherds fell asleep by a remote mountain spring. And by accident, they let its waters flow on to the plain below, creating two huge, sparkling blue lakes, Mikri and Megali Prespa. Perched high above sea level, straddling Albania, Greece, and the Republic of North Macedonia, the Prespa lakes are amongst the oldest and largest in Europe, first formed more than two million years ago.

Last week saw some important moves by international financial institutions to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. At their Spring Meetings, the World Bank and IMF rightly focused on ensuring the global financial system has sufficient liquidity and getting emergency health support and relief as quickly as possible to the countries who need it most, and the G20 agreed a debt moratorium for low income countries. These are surely welcome first steps in the poorest parts of the world. What next?

Legend has it that five hundred years ago, Doña Ana, wife of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, fled the Andalusian court and took refuge in a magical pine forest on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River south of Seville. || An oasis that has given us so much, Doñana’s bounty is neither limitless, nor beyond failure. A bellwether of our relationship with nature, the choices we make today will determine its future and the fate of the natural world upon which we all depend.

Devastating forest fires like those in Australia, the Amazon, Indonesia and Congo move in and out of the headlines – but they keep burning, affecting people, economies and nature, driven by and worsening the climate crisis. How we feed, fuel and finance ourselves is pushing nature to the brink. We’re using resources faster than natural systems can replenish them, and the natural capital that sustains our enterprise and prosperity is in severe decline, posing an existential threat.

Recently, there have been some promising moves by business on climate change and nature loss. The new Davos Manifesto calls for a better kind of capitalism which engages all stakeholders in ‘shared and sustained value creation’. And just last week, BlackRock struck a decidedly stronger tone on climate change. These are welcome commitments but must lead to action – especially given world leaders discussing climate change in Madrid last month accomplished almost nothing, with big emitters blocking efforts to reduce emissions and doing a grave injustice to the two billion people most vulnerable to climate breakdown. While the catastrophic fires in Australia continue to burn, such political inaction is looking increasingly reckless as investors scrutinize climate risks and voters turn their backs on fossil-fuel friendly politicians.