Nature positive is the new net zero

This article was first published in The Australian Financial Review on 4 April 2023.

2023 is set to be a watershed year in the evolution of biodiversity conservation, with an inescapable sharpened focus on impacts and dependencies on nature for the foreseeable future.

New biodiversity targets were announced under the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in late 2022. One of the GBF targets includes restoring, conserving and managing 30% of terrestrial, inland water and coastal and marine areas by 2030.

These GBF targets will soon be as important for corporates and their Boards as the greenhouse gas emission targets agreed under the Paris Agreement.

We can all recall the immense stakeholder and shareholder pressure companies faced to publicly commit to net zero targets.