Businesses can either lead transformative change or risk extinction: IPBES

(Press-News.org) Manchester, UK —  Every business depends on biodiversity, and every business impacts biodiversity. The growth of the global economy has been at the cost of immense biodiversity loss, which now poses a critical and pervasive systemic risk to the economy, financial stability and human wellbeing. This is a central finding of a landmark new report published today by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Even companies that might seem far-removed from nature or that do not see themselves as nature-based rely, directly or indirectly, on material inputs, regulation of environmental conditions - such as flood mitigation and water supply – and non-material contributions such as spaces for tourism, recreation, education, and spiritual, aesthetic and cultural values. But businesses often bear little or no financial cost for their negative impacts and many cannot currently generate revenue from positive impacts on biodiversity.

Approved by representatives of the more than 150 member Governments of IPBES, during the 12th session of the IPBES Plenary, hosted in Manchester, United Kingdom, the IPBES Methodological Assessment Report on the Impact and Dependence of Business on Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions to People (known as the Business and Biodiversity Report), finds that businesses are central to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, but that many often lack information to address their impacts and dependencies, as well as the risks and opportunities relating to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people.

Enabling environment necessary for business action

Prepared over three years by 79 leading experts from 35 countries and all regions of the world, drawn from science and the private sector, in consultation with Indigenous Peoples and local communities, the Report finds that the current conditions in which businesses operate are not always compatible with achieving a just and sustainable future, and that these conditions also perpetuate systemic risks.

Businesses often face inadequate or perverse incentives, barriers that hinder efforts to reverse nature's decline, an institutional environment with insufficient support, enforcement and compliance, as well as significant gaps in data and knowledge. These combine with business models that result in ever-increasing material consumption and an emphasis on reporting quarterly earnings, to contribute to the degradation of nature around the world. The Report makes the point that fundamental change is possible and necessary to create an enabling environment to align what is profitable for business with what is beneficial for biodiversity and people.

“This Report draws on thousands of sources, bringing together years of research and practice into a single integrated framework that shows both the risks of nature loss to business, and the opportunities for business to help reverse this,” said Matt Jones (UK), one of three Co-chairs of the Assessment. “This is a pivotal moment for businesses and financial institutions, as well as Governments and civil society, to cut through the confusion of countless methods and metrics, and to use the clarity and coherence offered by the Report to take meaningful steps towards transformative change. Businesses and other key actors can either lead the way towards a more sustainable global economy or ultimately risk extinction…both of species in nature, but potentially also their own.”

Business-as-usual Incentives are Driving Nature’s Decline

Current conditions perpetuate business-as-usual and do not support the transformative change necessary to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. For example, large subsidies that drive losses of biodiversity are directed to business activities with the support of lobbying by businesses and trade associations. In 2023, global public and private finance flows with directly negative impacts on nature, were estimated at $7.3 trillion, of which private finance accounted for $4.9 trillion, with public spending on environmentally harmful subsidies of about $2.4 trillion. 

In contrast, $220 billion in public and private finance flows were directed in 2023 to activities contributing to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity, representing just 3% of the public funds and incentives that encourage harmful business behaviour or prevent behaviour beneficial to biodiversity.

“The loss of biodiversity is among the most serious threats to business”, said Prof. Stephen Polasky (USA), Co-chair of the Assessment. “Yet the twisted reality is that it often seems more profitable to businesses to degrade biodiversity than to protect it. Business as usual may once have seemed profitable in the short term, but impacts across multiple businesses can have cumulative effects, aggregating to global impacts, which can cross ecological tipping points. The Report shows that business as usual is not inevitable – with the right policies, as well as financial and cultural shifts, what is good for nature is also what is best for profitability. To get there, the Report offers tools for choosing more effective measurements and analysis.”

Measuring Impacts and Dependencies  

The Report finds that a wide range of methods and data exist for measuring business impacts and dependencies, which can already inform decisions and action, but that more is known about applying methods for assessing impacts than for measuring dependencies. The application and uptake of methods is found to be low and uneven across and within business sectors and locales, with less than 1% of publicly reporting companies mentioning their impacts on biodiversity in their reports.

A recent survey among financial institutions representing 30% of global market capitalisation value found that the three most cited barriers to greater uptake of nature-related risk assessment and management are: a) access to reliable data, b) access to reliable models and c) access to scenarios. Prof. Polasky said: “Too often, businesses spend more time trying to decipher complex, competing frameworks for compliance and reporting than taking meaningful action. One of the powerful features of this Report is that it helps to decipher which methods, metrics and policy tools are appropriate for the scope of business, helping bring clarity and coherence to how businesses measure and report on their interactions with nature. We are moving the conversation from voluntary sustainability pledges to a science-based roadmap for system change.” 

The authors emphasize that no single method to measure and manage impacts and dependencies is suitable for all business decisions, and which aspects should be measured depends on context and the action or decision being informed – multiple methods or metrics will often be necessary. The Report proposes three overarching characteristics that can be used to assess which methods are most appropriate for any business, of any size or sector: coverage (geographic as well as the extent of impacts and dependencies included); accuracy (the degree to which results correctly describe what they are designed to measure); and responsiveness (the ability of the method to detect changes that can be attributed to the actions and activities of the business).

Decisions at the operational level require site-specific information, generated through ‘bottom-up’ approaches including location-based observations, participatory monitoring and mapping, and spatial analysis built on these data sources. Approaches more appropriate at the portfolio, corporate and value chain levels include ‘top-down’ methods such as life cycle approaches and macro-scale environmental economic models. Depending on the purpose of measurement, they can be conducted with lower spatial resolution data but wider geographic coverage.

Another key finding is that business could improve the measurement and management of impacts and dependencies through appropriate engagement with science and Indigenous and local knowledge. “Data and knowledge are often siloed,” said Prof. Ximena Rueda (Colombia), Co-chair of the Assessment. “Scientific literature is not written for businesses and a lack of translation and attention to the needs of business has slowed uptake of scientific findings. Among business there is also often limited understanding and recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as stewards of biodiversity and, therefore, holders of knowledge on its conservation, restoration and sustainable use.” 

Industrial development threatens 60% of Indigenous lands around the world and a quarter of all Indigenous territories are under high pressure from resource exploitation, but Indigenous Peoples and local communities often find themselves marginalised in business research and decision-making. “Respectful collaboration resulting in the sharing and better use of data, scientific insights and Indigenous and local knowledge can translate into better management of business risk and opportunities,” said Prof. Rueda.

Priorities and options for business action

The Report makes it clear that all businesses, including financial institutions, have a responsibility to act and could take further actions, given an enabling environment, on their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem services. Although trade-offs exist that prevent some transformative actions, the authors point to many actions that businesses can take now that benefit business and biodiversity – such as increasing efficiency and reducing waste and emissions. Specific options for business action that can be taken now to address their impacts and dependencies on nature are included as a table below.

“Better engagement with nature is not optional for business – it is a necessity”, said Prof. Rueda. “This is vital for their bottom line, long-term prosperity and the transformative change needed for a more just and sustainable futures. To avoid greenwashing though, it is essential that businesses have transparent and credible strategies, which clearly demonstrate their actions and how they contribute to biodiversity outcomes  and that they publicly disclose their impacts and dependencies as well as their lobbying activities”.

The Report explores both actions that can be taken by businesses themselves within their control and ‘signalling’ actions that can publicly influence and inspire action by others. Actions of each type can be pursued by businesses across four decision-making levels: corporate, operations, value-chain and portfolio.

The authors acknowledge that while there is a large existing knowledge base to guide action by businesses, there are also important gaps in knowledge and its application that constrain the ability of all actors to fully understand and effectively manage business activities. The Report groups these gaps as follows: business-relvant data; data accessibility and transparency; incomplete evidence; low adoption of methods and limitations of methods – suggesting five sets of actions to address these priorities.

100+ Concrete Actions for Governments, Financial Actors & Civil Society

Another central message of the Report is that businesses cannot, by themselves, deliver the scale of change needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. Collaboration, collective and individual actions are essential to create an enabling environment where businesses contribute to a just and sustainable future.

Five specific components are identified as central to such an enabling environment: policy, legal and regulatory frameworks; economic and financial systems; social values, norms and culture; technology and data; and capacity and knowledge. The Report provides more than 100 specific examples of concrete actions that can be taken, across each of these five components, by businesses, governments, financial actors and civil society. A table of these actions is attached. 

“Better stewardship of biodiversity is central to managing risk across the whole of the economy and throughout societies – it’s not some distant environmental issue, but a core challenge now in every boardroom and cabinet-room,” said Prof. Polasky. “We need to move beyond the fallacy of a binary choice between governments and decision-makers being either pro-environment or pro-business. All business depends on nature, so actions that conserve and sustainably use nature can also be those that help businesses thrive in the long-term. One of the innovations of this Report is that it provides a template for accelerating collaboration and collective actions at all levels among and by governments, financial actors,  other actors including civil society, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, consumers, NGOs, international organisations, and academia in addition to the action needed by businesses and financial institutions themselves.”

Vital Guidance to Achieve Global Goals

Speaking about the significance of the Business and Biodiversity Report, Dr. David Obura, Chair of IPBES said: “This first-ever fast-track IPBES Assessment Report was delivered with urgency as we begin the second half of this decade, at the request of our Governments, as a vital contribution to efforts by businesses, governments, financial actors and the whole of society to meet the goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. It relates very directly to Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which focuses on businesses, but ultimately to all our shared global goals because businesses are at the centre of how our economies, and large parts of our society, depend on and impact nature”.

“We thank the Co-chairs and all the authors of this Assessment,” said Dr. Luthando Dziba, Executive Secretary of IPBES. “This Report builds very directly on the insights and evidence of many earlier IPBES Assessments – particularly the 2019 Global Assessment, the 2022 Values Assessment and the 2024 Nexus and Transformative Change Assessments – offering much-needed clarity and coherence to guide actions by business and all decision-makers. Nature is everybody’s business and the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity is central to business sustainability and success.”

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By the Numbers – Key Statistics and Findings from the Report

$1.18 trillion-$130.11 trillion: Growth of the global economy between 1820 and 2022 (in 2011 dollars) +100% vs -40%: Average per capita increase in human produced capital since 1992, versus reduction in stocks of natural capital $7.3 trillion: Global public and private finance flows in 2023 with directly negative impacts on nature, of which private finance accounted for $4.9 trillion, with public spending on environmentally harmful subsidies of about $2.4 trillion $220 billion: Global public and private finance flows directed in 2023 to activities contributing to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity. <1%: Publicly reporting companies that mention biodiversity impacts in their reports 60%: Share of Indigenous lands globally threatened by industrial development 25%:Share of Indigenous territories under high pressure from resource exploitation At least 8: Number of countries (along with the European Union) in which central banks have analysed their financial institutions’ exposure to dependencies on biodiversity * * * * *

IPBES Partner Comments

Nature remains one of the most undervalued foundations of our global economy, despite underpinning food systems, supply chains, and long-term prosperity. At a time when some may question the role of science, IPBES continues to lead the way and provide independent, authoritative evidence – because science-based decision making is not optional, it is essential. 

The first-ever Business and Biodiversity Assessment reinforces this role. It will give decision-makers clear evidence of how businesses depend on nature, how they impact it, and what this means for risk, resilience, and long-term value. By identifying risks early, we can help prevent escalating costs - higher food prices, rising insurance premiums, and economic instability - affecting families and communities worldwide. 

Time is not on our side, but this Assessment offers a clear pathway on how we can align economic decision-making with environmental reality, delivering lasting benefits for people and for the planet.

Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Businesses across the agrifood systems both depend on and significantly impact biodiversity.  To build a resilient future, we need to transform these systems to ensure the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

By effectively assessing and managing their relationship with nature, businesses can strengthen their resilience, drive innovation, and establish themselves as leaders in the global economy. Every business along the value chain has a role in advancing sustainable practices that support biodiversity. Key actions include scaling up investments in innovative, biodiversity-friendly technologies across production, processing, distribution and consumption, as well as implementing robust systems to monitor and report the impacts of their business operations.

As a UN Collaborative Partner of IPBES, FAO supports agrifood businesses in enhancing their biodiversity performance, meeting recognized standards, and conducting risk-based due diligence.

This new IPBES assessment offers a timely analysis of such measures, providing crucial data for decision-makers dedicated to building agrifood systems that are more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable.

QU Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Biodiversity underpins every economy and every society. It generates jobs and income, regulates the climate, and sustains food, water, and health systems. Yet its very dependability hides the scale of our reliance on its continued stability. Too often, biodiversity is an invisible and expendable asset on a balance sheet. That is changing. Awareness is now accelerating of the risks to development if biodiversity fails—and of the economic opportunities and future prosperity that emerge where it thrives.

This IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment makes a vital contribution to exposing and explaining how business, economies, and development ambitions depend on biodiversity. Through our Nature Pledge, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) works alongside countries and our many partners to align economic progress with the protection and restoration of Nature. Our initiatives such as the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) and our work supporting the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures reveal growing investor and policymaker demand for actionable information. UNDP therefore strongly welcomes the assessment’s focus on advancing categorization, methodologies, standardization, and other dimensions essential to scaling the value and integration of biodiversity into decision-making.

Nature-positive business transformation—aligned with global biodiversity commitments and strengthened through collaboration with governments, local communities, and Indigenous Peoples—is a fast-track to resilient, inclusive, and sustainable development. This approach is now far from optional. It is essential to our collective future.

Alexander De Croo, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Businesses are inseparable from the ecosystems they operate in: they both depend on them and profoundly impact them. As significant drivers of today’s planetary crises, businesses have contributed to climate change, biodiversity loss and cultural erosion. At the same time, they have a critical role to play in advancing more sustainable solutions, a role already reflected in a growing number of initiatives.  

UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves is a strong example. These sites serve as living laboratories where biodiversity conservation, resilient livelihoods, cultural diversity and human wellbeing can reinforce one another. Through this network, UNESCO contributes in a concrete way to the implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, by promoting solutions rooted in places, communities and long-term balance between people and nature.

UNESCO is particularly proud to have contributed to this assessment by supporting the inclusion of Indigenous and local knowledge. Indigenous Peoples and local communities are often among the first to experience the impacts of unsustainable and extractive business practices, and frequently bear disproportionate social, cultural and ecological costs. At the same time, their knowledge, values and governance systems offer important insights into economic models that prioritize balance, reciprocity and long-term stewardship of nature. Recognizing and respecting these knowledge systems is a necessary condition for building sustainable, inclusive and effective responses to biodiversity crisis worldwide. 

In this context, UNESCO warmly welcomes this new IPBES assessment as an important contribution to advancing our shared understanding and collective action for biodiversity.

Khaled El-Enany, Director-General, United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)

The IPBES Business and Biodiversity report is a crucial contribution to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, particularly its Target 15, which is about businesses assessing and disclosing biodiversity-related risks and impacts. This is key not only to a better understanding of the centrality of biodiversity to value chains, but also to taking action to change business models, reduce negative and increase positive biodiversity impacts.

All businesses depend on nature. Some are very obviously exposed to risks stemming from resource depletion or environmental degradation; others may need to dig deeper to understand the breadth of their dependencies and impacts on biodiversity. Hidden risks can range from breaching regulatory frameworks to damaging the company’s brand. 

In any case, biodiversity is never a marginal issue. It lies at the crux of what makes companies thrive or flounder: value chain resilience.

In too many boardrooms and offices around the world, there is a still a dearth of awareness of biodiversity protection as a business investment.  And too often, public policy still incentivises behaviour that drives biodiversity loss.

Transformative change is both necessary and possible. With the right business mindset supported by the right incentives, thriving in harmony with nature is within reach. 

Congratulations to IPBES on showing the way. 

Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary,  Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

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IPBES has now released the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the Business and Biodiversity Report. The SPM presents the key messages and policy options, as approved by the IPBES Plenary. To access the SPM, photos, ‘B-roll’ and other media resources go to: https://ipbes.canto.de/v/IPBES12Media. As always with IPBES assessments, the full Report (including all data) will be published once the necessary edits have been made based on the final approved version of the Summary for Policymakers –in a matter of a months after the launch of the Summary for Policymakers.

This Summary for Policymakers should be cited as: IPBES (2026). Summary for Policymakers of the Methodological Assessment Report on the Impact and Dependence of Business on Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions to People. Jones M., Polasky S., Rueda X., Brooks S., Carter Ingram J., Egoh B. N., von Hase A., Kohsaka R., Kulak M., Leach K., Loyola R., Mandle L., Rodriguez-Osuna V., Schaafsma M. and Sonter L. J. (eds.). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15369060

About IPBES:

Often described as the “IPCC for biodiversity”, IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprising more than 150 member Governments. Established by Governments in 2012, it provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, as well as the tools and methods to protect and sustainably use these vital natural assets. For more information about IPBES and its assessments visit www.ipbes.net

Video introduction to IPBES: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOiGio7YU-M

Additional videos:

IPBES Thematic Assessment Report on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health (2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H6aW_j2oSA  IPBES Thematic Assessment Report on the Underlying Causes of Biodiversity Loss and the Determinants of Transformative Change and Options for Achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity (2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpCjEU9cPr0 IPBES Thematic Assessment on Invasive Alien Species and Their Control (2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybg4qxfoUIo  PBES Assessment of the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature (2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jju7gD2XYE&t=238s  IPBES Assessment on the Sustainable Use of Wild Species (2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZflgQkb3c8Q&t=12s  IPBES Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2019): https://youtu.be/7eYK5ibTOMA  IPBES Assessment of Land Degradation and Restoration (2018): www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCt7aai17Nk  IPBES Regional Assessments of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2018): www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR0HeepbWCc  IPBES Assessment of Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production (2016): www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwkYbeiwK5A  IPBES Assessment of Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity (2016):  www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZfcDmtGa9I Follow IPBES on Social Media: https://linktr.ee/ipbes  

Listen to our podcast: https://bit.ly/IPBESPodcast 

 

 

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