PI Partnership – Aon


BIODIVERSITY RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES: PRACTICAL STEPS FOR INVESTORS


Jennifer O’Neill is an associate partner in Aon’s responsible investment team


Tackling biodiversity loss has, so far, taken a back seat to car- bon reduction strategies and net-zero targets. Yet, healthy ecosystems, like forests and oceans, are essential in the fight against climate change given their role in re-capturing carbon emissions. Regulations and disclosure requirements to address climate change have, to date, been centred on the issue of identifying and targeting carbon emissions. However, to accelerate global efforts, it is necessary to broaden the scope of solutions to include protecting nature and restoring biodiversity losses. Economists, such as those at Stockholm Resilience Centre of Stockholm University, are increasingly taking a broader view through their research and modelling, evidenced by the development of the theory of ‘planetary boundaries’, repre- senting the necessary conditions to “regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system”. Addressing the risks to nature, and of biodiversity loss, is set to become key to business and investment decision-making too. As with climate change, it is now increasingly understood that asset owners can play an important role, through their invest- ment allocations, to reduce risks and negative impacts on nature and the environment, and to drive positive outcomes. Furthermore, expectations of investors around this are set to grow. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) made up of financial institutions, corporates and mar- ket service providers is on a mission to build a global frame- work, for adoption from September 2023, for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks, such as those identified above. Their goal is to support the “shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes”. So, what practical steps can investors take?


18 February 2023 portfolio institutional roundtable: Biodiversity


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28