Today, on International Biodiversity Day, BankTrack calls on banks to take the ‘Road to Cali’
Ola Janus, Campaign Lead Banks and Nature at BankTrack
ola@banktrack.org
Ola Janus, Campaign Lead Banks and Nature at BankTrack
ola@banktrack.org
Today, at the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity, BankTrack launches a new campaign, asking banks to commit to the goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which governments will discuss at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, in October 2024.
Biodiversity – the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems – is declining faster than at any time in human history. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reports that already around 1 million species face extinction and that the biosphere, upon which humanity depends, is being altered to an unparalleled degree across all spatial scales. Without urgent action, this trend will continue to accelerate.
The ‘Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’ (GBF), an elaborate action plan adopted in December 2022 by 196 countries, is to halt and reverse biodiversity loss before 2030. It contains 4 key goals and 23 targets that according to the plan cannot be achieved without the involvement, and reform of, the financial sector. Target 14 mandates that all governments align public and private financial activities with the GBF's goals, integrating biodiversity considerations into all economic activities. Target 15 emphasises corporate transparency, requiring financial institutions to assess, disclose, and mitigate their biodiversity impacts in order to reduce them.
Commercial banks can potentially play a crucial role in reversing the trend of biodiversity loss, yet are currently too often profiting from the projects that destroy them. Research from UNEP revealed that in 2022, private financial flows directed toward activities directly harming nature exceeded the private financial flows for nature conservation and restoration by an astonishing 140-fold margin. The 2023 Banking on Biodiversity Collapse report showed that, from 2016 to September 2023, at least $307 billion in credit has been directed to business sectors putting tropical forests at risk, such as beef, timber, soy, and rubber. The analyses of bank policies included in the same report indicate a lack of environmental and social safeguards for providing financial services to high-risk sectors and clients.
For banks to help preserve the ecosystems and biodiversity that is sustaining all life and human activities on Earth, banking included, will require a profound change in how banks conduct their business. The Road to Cali campaign seeks eight concrete commitments from banks to do so, including amongst others monitoring, assessing, and transparently disclosing their biodiversity impacts, adopting exclusion policies for sectors and clients that that have no credible transition pathway towards alignment with the GBF goals, and refusing to finance any business activities in global biodiversity hotspots.
Ola Janus, Banks and Nature Campaign Lead at BankTrack, comments: “While it is primarily on governments to take ambitious action on biodiversity, BankTrack also demands from banks to act urgently and decisively to protect nature. Not by embracing false solutions such as carbon and biodiversity credits to offset destruction, or turning nature into a commodity to be extracted and exploited, or supporting woody biomass as a renewable energy source, or merely adhering to deeply flawed voluntary disclosures like TNFD. These deceptive instruments perpetuate the destruction of life on Earth, offering the illusion of progress without tackling the underlying root causes of the problem. What is required is an immediate end to all finance for clients and business sectors that cause biodiversity loss.”
Johan Frijns, Executive Director at BankTrack: “Be part of the Plan” is the theme of today's International Biodiversity Day. That is why today we call on all banks to take the Road to Cali and help reach the goals of the GBF, to make a firm public commitment to help protect nature and biodiversity before the start of COP16 in October. There is no time to lose.”