From 21 October to 1 November, the international community will meet in Cali, Colombia, for COP16, the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In the run-up to the meeting, 14,000 people have been accredited to join the event’s Blue Zone, the formal negotiation space, and the Colombian presidency estimates that about a tenth will come from the corporate sector. Business involvement in the Green Zone, open to anyone, is also at “historic” levels according to the presidency.

What is behind this increase in interest? Here is a closer look at five emerging trends.

1. Nature is critical for the global economy.

The World Economic Forum has estimated that at least half the world’s GDP depends on nature and that 40% of the world’s stock of natural resources is in decline. Consequently, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are ranked among the three most severe risks of the coming decade in the World Economic Forum’s most recent global risk report.

Adding to this challenge is the growing uncertainty brought by climate change, the high degree of interconnection between countries through trade and transport, and growing geopolitical tensions.

SEI researchers have analysed complex production and trade systems around energy, food, and minerals, three areas where demand is expected to rise quickly in coming years. A country’s or a business’s real risk exposure can be assessed only when analysing these trends together with international interdependencies, which SEI has done for Sweden as part of the project Mistra Geopolitics, for example.

2. Countries are setting their national biodiversity agendas.

COP16 is focused on moving from words to action – how can the world implement the ambitious Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at COP15 two years ago? All countries are now expected to present up-to-date National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), describing how they will deliver on the framework’s goals and targets.

Several targets in the Global Biodiversity Framework are highly relevant for businesses, including target 7 for reducing pollution; target 15, which calls on businesses to assess, disclose, and reduce biodiversity-related risks and negative impacts; and target 16 to reduce waste and overconsumption.

3. Companies are expected to report nature-related risks.

As recently as 2022, only five percent of companies in an oft-cited survey said that they assessed their impact on nature, but expectations are changing fast: investors are starting to request more information about companies’ nature-related issues, and assessment tools are becoming much more sophisticated. Ahead of COP16, 177 financial institutions representing 28 countries and over EUR 22.1 trillion in assets have signed the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge to accelerate progress.

A range of voluntary tools and frameworks exists to support nature-related monitoring and reporting, for example the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures framework, the CDP standards, the Global Reporting Initiative, the MSCI’s Nature and Biodiversity Metrics, and corporate guidance from the Science Based Targets Network. The UN Environment Programme recently published an overview of some key methodological and conceptual trends on nature-related disclosures and assessments.

At the same time, legal obligations are growing for companies to present this type of reporting. From 2025, companies operating in the EU must comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD); the following year, China will set new sustainability reporting guidelines.

4. “Nature-positive” companies will take the lead.

More and more companies are moving beyond a focus on risk to explore nature-positive business models that add value to nature. The Stockholm Synthesis Report, published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and SEI in 2022, demonstrates what this can look like, using six global value chains as examples, including electronics, fashion, and agriculture. The World Economic Forum has suggested that taking a nature-oriented approach could create a USD 10.1 trillion business opportunity and 395 million new jobs.

Pursuing a “bioeconomy” – which goes beyond “nature positive” to include social impacts and people – offers a great opportunity, for low- to high-income countries, if developed with biodiversity at the core. SEI is organizing two side events at COP16 to explore how this can be achieved. One event discusses guiding principles for the bioeconomy, building on SEI’s Initiative on Governing Bioeconomy Pathways. The other focuses on how non-timber forest products (known as NTFPs) can generate incomes without debilitating ecosystems.

5. New insights show the role of trade and consumers.

Food, energy, infrastructure, and fashion are causing most of the human-made pressure on biodiversity, meaning that consumer attitudes have a much greater impact than commonly acknowledged. The discussions at COP16 will address overconsumption and trade in relation to target 16, where both companies and governments have a role to play.

SEI has helped develop the Global Environmental Indicators of Consumption (GEIC), a component indicator for target 16. A side event organized by SEI will showcase how overconsumption can be reduced in an equitable manner.

For the first time, the biodiversity COP will host a specific Trade Day, when different UN organizations will hold multiple trade-related events. With insights from work with the Trase platform, SEI researchers will share their expertise on how value chains impact deforestation and agricultural commodity trade.

All these trends combined could make negotiations at COP16 easier, by addressing a major obstacle: how to mobilize the necessary financing to achieve the Global Biodiversity Framework. The private sector must contribute, and they will only do so if they see it as a sensible investment.