Scaling up progress on Target 15: Lessons from encouraging and enabling business assessment and disclosure

Tuesday, October 27, 18:15

Aparan - JUSCANZ meeting room

Background

To achieve Target 15, CBD parties need to identify and implement measures that will encourage and enable businesses to better understand and report on their relationship with biodiversity. The draft Global Report on Collective Progress in the Implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework highlights that a significant bolstering of efforts is needed to meet the ambitions set out in the Target 15. Nevertheless, several successful case studies already exist and could offer inspiration for scaling up progress on Target 15 in other countries.

Implementing GBF Target 15 is particularly relevant because it addresses a critical market failure: the lack of consistent information on nature-related risks and impacts needed to mobilize private finance. For example, developing countries alone host around 70% of global biodiversity and are projected to receive much of the future investment in infrastructure, agriculture and natural resource sectors, yet biodiversity-related data available to investors and financial institutions remain limited. By requiring large companies and financial institutions to assess and disclose their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, Target 15 reduces information asymmetries, supports better risk pricing and capital allocation, and helps countries align with rapidly emerging global disclosure expectations.

This side event will highlight successful examples in Target 15 implementation from different regions of the world. Aimed at representatives of CBD parties, the event will showcase measures with high potential for positive impact already implemented by different governments, and change driven directly by the private sector. For each successful example, speakers will reflect on what enabling conditions made them possible and what would be needed to replicate it.

Businesses and financial institutions in developing countries are key to integrating biodiversity into domestic investment, lending and business decisions, helping redirect capital towards biodiversity-positive activities. At the same time, multinational companies and global financial institutions with value chains in developing countries increasingly require biodiversity-related information from suppliers to meet their own disclosure commitments. The side event will also spotlight frontrunners from the private sector – businesses and financial institutions driving momentum on biodiversity assessment and disclosure – and how they can support national progress on Target 15 across jurisdictions.

The event will include a presentation from UNEP-WCMC on the status of Target 15 implementation. This will summarize insights from the draft Global Report on Collective Progress in the Implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which found that according to self-assessments, two thirds of national targets show no progress or insufficient progress on Target 15. It will also relay lessons from UNEP-WCMC’s National Monitoring Support Initiative and other support to national and regional partners, on finding suitable data for headline indicator 15.1.

The event will also shed light on the findings from the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment by one of the assessment’s co-chairs. Published in February 2026, the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment reaffirmed that all businesses impact and depend on nature and sufficient data and methods already exist for businesses to be able to manage and report on these impacts and dependencies and associated risks and opportunities. Despite this, the assessment found that fewer than 1% of publicly traded companies report on nature. Drawing on over 100 actions for governments, finance, business and civil society identified in the assessment, the keynote will emphasize that businesses need to play an active role but cannot do it alone.

Following the keynote, UNDP will chair the first panel discussion, focusing on government action for Target 15 implementation. This will offer a unique opportunity to learn about successful case studies from countries engaged in Target 15 implementation activities, in coordination with UNDP and partners. The speakers will begin with a short presentation of lessons from their country, followed by a discussion moderated by an expert from UNDP.

The second panel discussion will focus on opportunities for collaboration between governments and private sector, and particularly the role that business associations and other voluntary initiatives can play in driving progress on Target 15. Moderated by an expert from the Business for Nature initiative, the discussion will include speakers from business associations in Colombia (TBC) and Japan (TBC).

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