Biodiversity and Nature-related Disclosures

From Standardized Frameworks to Managing Global Biodiversity Risks

BIODIVERSITY AND NATURE-RELATED DISCLOSURES: FROM STANDARDIZED FRAMEWORKS TO MANAGING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY RISKS

FEBRUARY 2023 BY SOFFIA ALARCÓN AND TANIA MIRANDA

BIODIVERSITY AND NATURE-RELATED DISCLOSURES

1. INTRODUCTION

B iodiversity loss is a current crisis of global repercussions, similar and interrelated to that of climate change. By definition, biological diversity is the living component of natural capital, which is in turn defined by the stock of renewable and nonrenewable natural resources such as carbon, water, soil, species, communities, habitats, and landscapes. In terms of animal species, the global population ofmammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians, for example, declinedby 60% between 1970 and 2014. 1 In fact, on average, 69% of the relative abundance of monitored wildlife has declined from 1970 to 2018. 2 Land-use and land-use changes driven by consumption are the leading cause of ecosystem degradation that ends in the loss of biological diversity through species extinction. Food production around the world has caused 80% of deforestation and 70% of biodiversity loss on land. This has profound consequences that reverberate on how ecosystems and climate work holistically and, eventually, on human life. Soil degradation has cost 10% of annual global GDP in ecosystem services (ESS). This is important since more than half of global GDP (US$44 trillion) is dependent on healthy and well-functioning ecosystems and the services they provide. To halt and reverse this course, the UNestimates that nature and biodiversity protection need an injection of US$384 billion annually by 2025 3 —more than double the current level of investment. Despite of this, only 3% of actual global climate finance flows is spent on nature-based solutions. Meanwhile, governments and multi-national financial institutions are spending between US$500 billion-$1 trillion a year on potentially damaging subsidies to aquaculture, agriculture, and fossil fuels. For the private sector, assessing, disclosing, and reporting risks brought to their businesses and supply chains by the loss of biodiversity is the first step towards biodiversity protection. However, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks do not currently cover and untangle the main intricacies to disclose biodiversity-related Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), let alone help set targets to prevent the further deterioration of ecosystems. That said, global initiatives led primarily by the UN and sustainable-conscious investors are creating the right tools and guidelines to standardize the data reported. These efforts will be reinforced by policies and regulations requiring the private sector both to disclose and to manage biodiversity loss risks.

1WWF, Living Planet Report (2018), Link. 2WWF, “69% average decline in wildlife populations since 1970, says newWWF report” (2022), Link 3Binnie I., “Nature needs $384 billion annually by 2025, U.N. says”, Reuters (2022), Link. February 2023

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2. A QUICK OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL ACTION ON BIODIVERSITY

2.1 THE KUNMING-MONTREAL GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK B iodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation is driven by the complex interaction of unsustainable consumption , pollution, climate change, invasive species, land use and habitat conversion, and weak policies and enforcement to protect such ecosystems. If humanity continues this course of action, which is already impacting communities around the world, it could have unimaginable socioeconomic consequences at a global scale. The first United Nations (UN) Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) celebrated in 1992 recognized for the first time in international law the conservation of biodiversity as “a common concern of humankind”. 4 Later on, in 2011, 20 biodiversity targets were put forth by the CBD to establish a common 10-year action framework—known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets—for countries to tackle biodiversity loss in unison. However, by 2020, a UN assessment 5 found that none of the Aichi targets had been fully achieved at a global level. O nDecember 19th, 2022, 188governments agreed toa landmarkdeal toguideglobal actiontoprotect biodiversity and restore ecosystems. Chaired by China and hosted in Montreal, the UN Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (CBD COP 15) was a critical steppingstone for tackling global biodiversity loss by establishing a new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The Kunming-Montreal GBF includes 4 long-term goals (2050 Vision for Biodiversity) and 23 action-oriented targets which, if achieved, will result in the slowing of nature loss by 2030. The Four Kunming-Montreal GBF Goals are: Goal 1. Reducing the rate of species extinction by tenfold by 2050. Goal 2. Supporting the achievement of sustainable development by improvements in the management and use of biodiversity, including ecosystem services. Goal 3. Equitable sharing of the monetary and non-monetary benefits of the applications of genetic resources. Goal 4. Providing adequate resources (financial, technical, capacity-building, etc.) to allow for full implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. In addition, the 23 short-term targets include restoring 30% of the global marine and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as the effective management of 30% of oceans, lands, and coastal areas by 2030 (known as the 30X30 target). Others include reducing to near zero the loss of areas of high biodiversity and halving global food waste. Regarding nature-related climate finance, the targets suggest phasing out reforming subsidies that harm biodiversity by at least US$500 billion per year and mobilizing at least US$200 billion per year from public and private sources. 4 The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, gave birth to three sister Conventions—on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification—in response to the unique challenges that each pose to humanity. 5 Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 – Summary for Policy Makers (2020). Link.

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2.2 BIODIVERSITY ACTION IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR

W ithin the private sector, this topic only started to gain traction around 2019 , when the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services came out and warned that, due to human activities, the planet’s biodiversity had suffered a disastrous decline unprecedented in human history.6 Investors and businesses thus were forced to consider how biodiversity loss posed financial and reputational risks to their portfolios and operations, respectively. Nonetheless, the lack of a globally-agreed upon framework and KPIs to set targets and measure progress towards halting biodiversity loss has hampered the efforts to drive action forward. According to ShareAction, an organization that aims to improve corporate behavior on ESG issues, reporting on biodiversity is where reporting on climate change was five to 10 years ago. Its most recent report found that, in 2020, only 11% of the world’s 75 largest asset managers had policies requiring portfolio companies to mitigate harmful impacts on biodiversity and none had a dedicated policy on biodiversity. In response to the latter, one of the most prominent biodiversity-related initiatives and most likely to impact the business sector moving forward, is the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Such initiative lays out for the first time a standardized framework to disclose biodiversity-related risks at the organization level. The TNFD is the sister framework of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). As of February 2023, the Taskforce is halfway through its 2-year phase design of the TNFD framework, with the support and insights from stakeholders in over 140 countries. The first beta version (or prototype) was unveiled in March 2022, and the final version of the recommendations are expected to be published in September 2023. The TNFD will provide recommendations to a wide array of market participants, including institutional investors, corporations, credit providers, and regulators, on how to assess and disclose their nature-related financial risks posed by ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. Because climate change and nature loss are deeply intertwined, the TNFD is expected to build up harmonization of KPIs and improve transparency across both themes (i.e., climate and biodiversity). The TNFD aims to build a risk management and disclosure framework that can be used by organizations of all sizes and in all jurisdictions to identify, assess, disclose, and manage nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities.7 And, as with the TCFD, it is expected that standardized data will help organizations successfully integrate such risks into governance structures and long-term strategy, and investors discern and compare such information across firms. The core structure of the TNFD framework is shown in the figure on page 5.8 Key components of the framework include: mapping the location of a company’s value chains to each ecosystem to help determine priority issues; evaluating business dependencies and impacts on nature, along with related risks, opportunities, and potential actions, and; defining a comprehensive biodiversity strategy , including short-, medium- and long term targets to reduce and reverse the business’ impact on nature.

6IPBES: Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. E. S. Brondizio, J. Settele, S. Díaz, and H. T. Ngo (editors). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 1148 pages (2019), Link. 7TNFD, “Introducing the TNFD framework. Version v0.3 Beta Release” (November 2022), Link. 8Ibid. February 2023

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3. WHAT’S NEXT FOR COMPANIES AND INVESTORS?

T he loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services impact businesses, investors, and countries through transition, physical, regulatory, and systemic-wide risks which, just as climate change related risks, have the potential to impact the investment value in the short, medium, and long term. Not having a clear understanding of the potential impacts of these risks or exposure to those sectors heavily relying on biodiversity, could lead to stranded assets and revenue losses. The equivalent of the net-zero emissions climate goal for biodiversity is to become Net Positive, whichmeans, firstly, halting further damage to ecosystems, and then facilitating the restoration of nature, thereby generating positive value. Yet, in the absence of specific methodologies and standards to set net positive targets, companies are leveraging upon the existing ESG reporting frameworks to disclose their biodiversity risks. Nonetheless, methodologies and frameworks to manage the latter are still scarce or non-existent. Companies and investors are currently relying on CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project) and will rely on TNFD to disclose their KPIs moving forward. In that sense, there are a few actions investors can take to minimize their exposure to biodiversity risks: Negative screening. Negative screening is the process of finding companies that score poorly on biodiversity metrics or targets but also on ESG factors, relative to their peers. These companies can then be avoided when constructing a portfolio. It is the opposite of positive screening, which seeks to include top performers in a portfolio. Capital allocation. Based on the different frameworks and biodiversity KPIs reported, investors should allocate capital to sectors or business models that avoid and reduce biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. For investors, nature degradation and biodiversity loss represent a long-term financial material risk that requires to be monitored both at the portfolio- as well as the investee-level. As such, apart from climate, biodiversity-related risks are increasingly factored into investment decisions to minimize financial impact, but also to pinpoint opportunities to diversify investments and increase profits. Because of this, biodiversity is the fastest growing ESG theme in global capital markets. Catherine Howarth, CEO at ShareAction, points out that, “In just three years, the issue (of biodiversity) has moved from being virtually ignored by mainstream institutional investors to being acknowledged by all.” 9

9Agnew, H., “Biodiversity quickly rises up the ESG investing agenda”. FT (2022): Link.

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3.1 MAIN CHALLENGES FOR INVESTORS AND COMPANIES ON BIODIVERSITY ACTION

S ome challenges may arise when analyzing, collecting, and managing biodiversity data. The two most relevant today are the following: Data collection and management. Because of the interdependency between climate and biodiversity as well as their interconnection with ecosystem services, one of the biggest challenges for investors and corporates is access to data. If data is available, it is often old, unrefined, and fragmented, thus creating a challenge to disclose and therefore manage risks. In addition to this, data is often generated with science and research purposes, rather than for reporting and managing risks. Corporates and investors still have a long way to understand how to integrate multiple databases for different species and ecosystems around the world. Furthermore, some companies are still catching up with the overall ESG disclosure trend, and may take time to get up to speed on biodiversity-specific disclosures. Furthermore, biodiversity (and other ESG) data points are more useful when collected more frequently—rather than on an annual basis—given that nature is not linear. This means that businesses need not only better but also more frequent data. Fortunately, technology has created tools that can help improve access to biodiversity data, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, sensor-detectors, satellite images, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). All together, these tools will become more relevant as corporates and businesses begin to collect data on a regular basis to manage their exposure to climate and biodiversity. ESG framework alignment and data standardization. An additional reporting framework in the already-wide ESG‘alphabet soup’may represent an additional challenge for companies disclosing ESG risks. As companies keep aligning and standardizing their reporting with investors’ requirements, there is still a large gap between supply (what companies include in their ESG reports) and demand (i.e., what investors request). Data standardization is relevant by sector, to achieve comparability, yet it is important to keep in mind that it may take years to achieve this in biodiversity.

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4. WHAT’S NEXT FOR GOVERNMENTS?

I n addition to backing business-led frameworks such as the TNFD , and enforcing regulations that prevent biodiversity loss and ecosystem destruction, governments can also participate through innovative climate finance mechanisms that actively facilitate net-positive projects. A few of these mechanisms are listed below. Sovereign debt: Linking biodiversity gains to the cost of a government’s sovereign debt is expected to become a more common approach in the coming years, as more emerging countries look to secure cheaper funding to invest in climate and nature. For instance, in 2022, Chile became the first country to issue a sovereign sustainability-linked bond, raising US$2 billion to help fund its climate goals. Ecuador is also holding talks with banks and nonprofits to reach a deal that would refinance about $800 million of its debt more cheaply.10 These efforts can be focused specifically on biodiversity-positive endeavors. Blue bonds. Blue bonds work similarly than traditional bonds but differ in that the issuing entities must use the resources generated for the conservation of marine (or blue) ecosystems. The conservation of oceans is usually linked to the protection or restoration of habitats and biodiversity. As an example, Philippine lender BDO Unibank raised US$100 million in May 2022 to “help prevent marine pollution and preserve clear water resources”.11 Biodiversity-related credits/offsets. Valuing nature through the generation of credits or offsets is still in its infancy, yet there are already some frameworks such as the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards that can be applied to any land management project that delivers climate, community, and biodiversity benefits.This mechanism works in a similar fashion to carbon compensation credits or offsets. Biodiversity-specific taxes. Another option for governments to help finance biodiversity efforts is to levy a special tax to companies responsible for causing damage to ecosystems and biodiversity, to help pay for that damage to be restored. In some countries, it can be called a compensation tax (for instance, Mexico has a law that mandates companies to compensate for the environmental damage they cause through project development, although it has not been enforced), whilst other countries/states prefer to use the money collected to recycle it into the general economy. The EU Nature Restoration Law is a good example of how the European Union requires member states revive forests, wetlands, and other landscapes marred by human development. See Table 1 in the Appendix for a complete list of the multiple standards and frameworks that are meant to tackle this issue through government- and private-led efforts.

10Reuters, “Ecuador reaches deal with China to restructure debt” (2022), Link. 11Binnie, I., et.al, “Factbox: Biodiversity finance options grow, but pace of investment still slow”, Reuters (2022), Link.

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4.1 RELEVANCE OF BIODIVERSITY FOR BUSINESS IN THE LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN REGION

A ccording to a UNEP-WEF report from 2022, 12 Latin America is the region with the lowest Nature-based Solution (NbS) project capital expenses in USD/hectare, globally. This means that developed countries with the resources to spend on NbS and biodiversity targets, might instead choose to invest in nature-related projects in lower cost sites such as Latin America, where they get a better bang for their buck. This holds true, says the report, for different categories—i.e., ecosystems—including wetlands, tropical forests, and others. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) holds a quarter of the world’s total forest cover, almost half of the tropical forests, and over 25% of mangrove cover. 13 The region also houses roughly half of the world’s terrestrial species. 14 Simply when looking at blue carbon, we find that 11 out of the 25 countries with the largest mangrove restorable area, are in LAC. For instance, Mexico, the country with the second largest restorable mangrove area, at a carbon price of US$60/ tCO2, would have an expected financial return of restoring such coverage of $US1.19 billion (per an Earth Justice 2020 analysis). 15 As such, the region is in a prime position to attract investment for biodiversity conservation and natural capital protection in forms of international climate finance, both private and public, and other bilateral forms of carbon trading and compensation mechanisms. These opportunities will only increase as investors grasp the benefits of integrating NbS approaches to their portfolios, as they add value by increasing resilience to climate change. 16 In that sense, governments and regulators across the region shouldpromote theadoptionof disclosure frameworks such as the TNFD and implement their own regulations, fiscal frameworks — such as green and sustainable taxonomies — and blended finance schemes to unlock the potential of the region through leveraging the private sector and capital markets.

12 UNEP, “The State of Finance for Nature in the G20 report”, (2022), Link: 13 Global Forest Watch, Link.

14 Ardila, A, et.al, “Latin American and Caribbean forests in the 2020s: trends, challenges and opportunities”, IABD (2020), Link. 15 Earth Security, “Financing the Earth’s Assets: The Case for Mangroves as a Nature-based Climate Solution”, 2020, Link. 16 Ibid. February 2023

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5. CONCLUSIONS

A World Economic Forum (WEF) report found that nature-positive solutions “will create US$10.1 trillion in business opportunities, and 395 million jobs through key sector transitions”. 17 In fact, investing in ecosystem restoration creates on average 3.7 times as many jobs as oil and gas production investments. However, biodiversity and nature-related projects and investments have historically been overlooked by private sector and capital markets. Similarly, risks brought by biodiversity loss and ecosystem alterations have typically been ignored by businesses and regulators. It took a few years to get traction on the global efforts to assess, report, and disclose climate-related risks when climate change became mainstream. Thus, it will most likely take a few years too for the efforts to halt biodiversity loss to gain full force. Nonetheless, biodiversity is finally on the private sector agenda — at the top levels —and even more so, now that the link between climate change and biodiversity is better understood, we can expect financing to flow towards net-positive endeavors. Peter Harrison, CEO of Schroders, points out that we can expect a significant amount of resources flow into natural capital “as people figure out that nature is a very large proportion of the answer to decarbonization. There is no route to net-zero without biodiversity.” 18 Here, regulations and standardization of disclosure frameworks can go a long way. In that sense, voluntary initiatives like the TNFD for companies and investors, and the GBF for governments, can pave the way for future mandatory disclosure and proper management of risks tied to nature degradation and biodiversity loss.

17 Ibid. 18 Agnew, H., “Biodiversity quickly rises up the ESG investing agenda”. FT (2022): Link.

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TABLE 1. GLOBAL STANDARDS AND POLICIES MEANT TOTACKLE BIODIVERSITY LOSS 6. APPENDIX REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE MECHANISMS MECHANISM APPLICATION DETAILS

Project-based, or direct investments

Requires nancial institutions to take a series of impact assessment and mitigation actions related to biodiversity.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) “Performance Standard 6” (Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources)

All economic activities and investments

The EU taxonomy is a classi cation system establishing a list of environmentally sustainable economic activities. Objective 6 includes “Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems”. Several of the 17 SGD goals are related to biodiversity conservation. The GBP explicitly recognize several broad categories of eligibility for Green Projects, which contribute to environmental objectives such as: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, natural resource conservation, biodiversity conservation, and pollution prevention and control. GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016 addresses the topic of biodiversity and aims to help companies report on their impact on nature.

EU Taxonomy

Policies, projects, investments, portfolio, and company-level

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2015

Investment/project-based

Green Bond Principles (GBP)

Company-wide

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Company-wide

The GRI’s new Biodiversity Standard exposure draft,

GRI Biodiversity Standard

announced in late 2022, is now available for public comment.

Company-wide

In 2023, the CDP will begin scoring companies using questionnaires that address biodiversity speci cally.

CDP-Biodiversity

The IFC provides loans to intermediary banks, leasing companies, and other institutions for on-lending.

GLOBAL STANDARDS AND POLICIES MEANT TOTACKLE BIODIVERSITY LOSS REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE MECHANISMS MECHANISM APPLICATION DETAILS

Certi cation

Promotes the use of sustainable palm oil products through global standards and multistakeholder governance. Helps organizations disclose material information about the risks and opportunities that biodiversity presents to an organization’s strategy, nancial performance, and condition within the mainstream report (biodiversity-related nancial disclosures). The TNFD framework is aimed at improving the ability of organizations to assess, manage, and act on nature-related risks to shift nancial ows towards “nature-positive outcomes”. Uses a life-cycle assessment approach to measure the corporate’s biodiversity footprint. Calculates the ecological footprint—on a life-cycle assessment basis—of a speci c economic activity on the ecosystem.

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

Company-wide

Climate Disclosure Standard Board’s Framework application guidance for biodiversity-related disclosure

Company-wide

Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND PERFORMANCE

Company-wide

The Global Biodiversity Score (GBS)

Investment/project- or company-wide

Biodiversity Footprint for Financial Institutions (BFFI)

Speci c Investment-wide

Species Threat Abatement and Recovery Metric (STAR)

It calculates the contribution an investment can make to reducing extinction risk of a species.

Portfolio-wide

Net Environmental Contribution (NEC)

Science-based methodology for measuring portfolio impact. It measures the environmental impact of an economic activity, company, or sector to deliver a net contribution value on a scale of -100% to +100%.

GLOBAL STANDARDS AND POLICIES MEANT TOTACKLE BIODIVERSITY LOSS

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND PERFORMANCE

APPLICATION

DETAILS

MECHANISM

Screening approach

A life-cycle assessment approach is used to calculate a score for biodiversity loss, based on where other planet boundaries are the driver. The Nature Risk Pro le is aimed at enabling the nancial sector to measure and address nature-related risk by providing scienti cally robust and actionable analytics on nature impacts and dependencies. Informal network of business, scientists, and conservationists that commit to the zero-loss of biodiversity. This network is developing a set of science-based, nature-related targets for companies, similar to the science-based targets (for net-zero carbon emissions) initiative (SBTi).

9 Planetary Boundaries Framework

Company-wide

Nature & Biodiversity Risk Pro le (UNEP and S&P)

TARGETS AND STANDARDS

Business-wide

Science-based Targets Network

TABLE 2. TARGETS OF THE KUNMING-MONTREAL GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK (GBF)

TARGET 9. Ensure sustain able use and management of wild species, while protecting customary use by local commu nities and Indigenous peoples.

TARGET 17. Strengthen capacity for biosafety measures and ensure bene ts sharing from biotechnology.

TARGET 1. Manage land and sea use change e ectively, to reduce the loss of areas with high biodiversity importance to close to zero by 2030. TARGET 2. Ensure the e ective restoration of 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems by 2030. TARGET 3. Ensure e ective conservation and management of 30% of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas by 2030. TARGET 4. Halt human-in duced extinctions and maintain and restore genetic diversity within and among populations of native, wild, and domesticated species. TARGET 5. Ensure sustain able use, harvesting, and trade of wild species in a safe, sustain able, and legal manner. TARGET 6. Mitigate or eliminate the impacts of invasive alien species and reduce the rates of establishment of invasive species by 50% by 2030. TARGET 7. Reduce pollution risks and impacts from all sources by 2030, reducing the overall risk from pesticides by half as well as reducing or eliminating plastic pollution. TARGET 8. Minimize the impacts of climate change and ocean acidi cation on biodiversi ty via mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk reduction.

TARGET 18. Identify and eliminate harmful subsidies in a just way, reducing them by $500 billion by 2030. TARGET 19. Increase nancial resources substantially, mobilizing $200 billion per year by 2030 from all sources, including at least $20 billion per year by 2025 and at least $30 billion per year by 2030. TARGET 20. Strengthen capacity-building development and technology transfer. TARGET 21. Promote integrated and participatory management, including the use of traditional knowledge, innovations, practices, and technologies. TARGET 22. Ensure full, equitable, inclusive representa tion and participation of local communities.

TARGET 10. Manage areas under agriculture, aquaculture, sheries, and forestry sustainably.

TARGET 11. Restore and enhance ecosystem function through nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approach es. TARGET 12. Increase the area and quality of urban green and blue spaces to ensure biodiversity-inclusive urban planning. TARGET 13. Share the bene ts arising from the use of genetic resources fairly and equitably. TARGET 14. Integrate biodiversity into policies and development across all sectors, including aligning public and private activities. TARGET 15. Provide policy measure to enable businesses to monitor, assess, and disclose their impacts on biodiversity.

TARGET 23. Ensure gender equality in the implementation of the framework.

TARGET 16. Encourage sustainable consumption, including by reducing food waste by half by 2030.

BIODIVERSITY AND NATURE-RELATED DISCLOSURES

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Soffia Alarcón-Díaz

I s Associate Director, Americas, Sustainability Business, Schneider Electric where she is leading regional sustainability services with a strong focus on climate risk, ESG and net zero frameworks. Soffia is also an IOA Environment and Climate Change program non-resident fellow. Previously, she was the Director of Sustainable Finance at IHS Markit, where she supported the development of the next generation of ESG solutions to advise corporate andfinancial institutions onhowtodisclose andmanage ESGand climate-related risks. She was also Director of Carbon Trust Mexico where she spearheaded the expansion of the activities on green and sustainable bonds, sustainable agriculture and transport, energy efficiency, carbon markets and certification across LATAM. In 2012, she worked for the World Resources Institute in DC and later joined Mexico’s public sector as Director of Climate Change Mitigation Policy to lead the design of the National Emissions Register as well as the implementation of the Climate Change Law. Soffia holds a master’s degree on Public Administration from Columbia University. She is also a Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) fellow and was one of the international judges for the Million Cool Roofs Challenge. In 2021, she was named #Gamechanger by the Bloomberg Business week magazine. In the academic world, she taught a course on climate change policy and science and has collaborated in different magazines and television networks across Latin America. I s the Director of the Institute of the Americas’ Environment & Climate Change Program. She has over 6 years of experience with multiple Mexican government agencies at the federal level, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ProMexico, and the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C. Prior to the Institute, Tania worked as an Investment and Economic Specialist at the Consulate of Mexico in New York, focusing on the promotion of the U.S. – Mexico – Canada Trade Agreement as well as energy, infrastructure, and tourism-related projects. She also has experience working as an energy liaison for the Kuwaiti government in Mexico. Tania studied a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a Minor in International Relations at the University of Southern California, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, and a Master’s of Science in Energy Policy & Climate from the Johns HopkinsUniversity. Shehas publishedanarray of researchandopinionpieces on the energy sector in Mexico, as well as on Latin America’s Paris-related climate goals, carbon markets and blue carbon, and other environmental topics. She also co-authored a published book titledWe Are North America. Tania Miranda

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ABOUT THE INSTITUTE OF THE AMERICAS

T he Institute of the Americas (IOA) is a non-partisan , independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to be a catalyst for promoting economic development and integration, emphasizing the role of the private sector, as a means to improve the economic and social well-being of the people of the Americas. The Institute’s Environment & Climate Change Program (EC2) strives to catalyze climate leadership amongst the private sector and local/regional governments in the Americas to promote sustainable growth, tackle climate change and minimize environmental impacts in the region with the goal of protecting its rich marine and land-based natural capital.

Contact: Tania Miranda, EC2 Director, tmiranda@iamericas.org.

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