Trillion-dollar group calls for government action to stem wildlife loss | The Mighty 790 KFGO

By Simon Jessop and Jake Spring

LONDON/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – More than 100 companies including Unilever, L’Occitane and Iberdrola have called on their governments to take tougher measures to meet the UN goal of halting nature loss by the end of the decade.

With more than a million species threatened with extinction, the world agreed on a landmark agreement to protect biodiversity in 2022, including a commitment to protect 30% of the world’s natural ecosystems.

Countries will meet at the COP16 Biodiversity Summit in Colombia in October to work out the details of how to implement the commitment.

In a letter sent exclusively to Reuters ahead of the talks, 132 companies with combined sales of $1.1 trillion called for stronger measures.

Other companies that have signed the call to action – which covers everything from subsidy reforms to water use and agricultural practices – include mining group Teck Resources, food group Danone, energy company RWE and cement maker Holcim.

Humans are decimating wildlife by destroying natural ecosystems, polluting nature and driving climate change.

Regardless of the financial cost of preventive measures, some of the letter’s supporters point out that the far greater harm would come from species loss, since food production, for example, depends on declining pollinator numbers and water supply systems rely on vulnerable ecosystems.

“If we don’t focus on nature, if we don’t focus on biodiversity, our business may not even exist in the coming years,” says Rishi Kalra, managing director and chief financial officer of Olam Food Ingredients (ofi), one of the world’s largest suppliers of food and beverage ingredients.

For example, the company relies on bees to pollinate its almond farms, Kalra said in an interview.

“There may be no more food. People may no longer have a livelihood if nature is not protected.”

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, for example, has led to reduced rainfall and altered weather patterns in key agricultural areas that produce much of the world’s soy and beef.

“Without nature, without water, human life is impossible, not even prosperity, but simply existence,” said Laurent Freixe, CEO of Nestlé Latin America.

Because environmentally friendly strategies can result in higher costs in the short term, some companies are reluctant to take action unless governments set market-wide rules or provide the necessary incentives to force them to act.

Voluntary action by companies alone would not be enough, said the letter, which was coordinated by the advocacy group Business For Nature, which has developed policy recommendations.

Governments must ensure that companies and financial actors protect and restore nature, the letter says.

Further measures must include ensuring sustainable resource use, valuing and incorporating nature into decision-making and disclosure requirements, and stronger global agreements to combat nature loss.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop in London and Jake Spring in Sao Paulo; editing by Barbara Lewis)