A selection of the major stories impacting ESG investors, in five easy pieces. 

Public and private sector coordination provides the theme – and events of Nairobi, London and Rio de Janeiro the backdrop – for this week’s digest.

Natural allies – Just ahead of this year’s UN International Day for Biological Diversity, delegates gathered in Kenya for the first review of the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) since its adoption at COP15 in December 2022. A key task during the nine-day summit is to assess how well parties’ national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) support the 23 targets of the GBF. For the record, just nine countries, plus the European Union, have submitted updated NBSAPs since all 196 parties committed to the framework in Montreal. “The challenge is to ensure that the global aims are translated into nationally relevant targets that consider the context and the biophysical realities of each country,” said David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Delegates will also discuss the means of implementing the GBF, including capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, and resource mobilisation – the last of these being the trickiest given an estimated annual biodiversity finance gap of US$700 billion. Investors will be paying close attention to progress on the GBF’s fourth over-arching goal, the alignment of financial flows. According to a recent blog by Emine Isciel, Co-chair of the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, a critical factor will be reducing existing harmful financial flows. As well as robust private-sector disclosures, via standards such as those outlined by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, this requires public policy reforms to redirect US$542 billion in annual agricultural, fishing and forestry subsidies that damage nature, while also misdirecting private investment. “By fostering innovations, aligning incentives and setting clear boundaries, [finance ministers] can steer sectoral pathways towards reducing negative impacts, increasing positive impacts and catalysing private finance at scale,” she said.

Two figs – Alignment of finance flows with nature goals was also front of mind at the City Week event in London, with Karen Ellis, Chief Economist of the World Wide Fund for Nature UK, flagging two areas of opportunity. To avoid the nascent market for biodiversity credits making the same mistakes as the voluntary carbon markets, she said, governments could grasp the chance to create compliance markets. These could link the supply of financial incentives to the private