Stockholm (NordSIP) – The Finance for Biodiversity Foundation (FfB) published its latest update on the range of initiatives open to financial institutions. Published on 18 December 2024, the seventh iteration of the foundation’s Overview of initiatives for Financial Institutions on Biodiversity aims to provide institutional investors with an up-to-date overview of 19 collaborative initiatives along with the topics they seek to address and the methodology they use. The FfB’s periodic update was initiated in 2021 and is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and the Finance workstream under the EU Business & Biodiversity (EU B&B) Platform.
Since the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted at COP16 financial institutions have seen a proliferation of new nature-related themes and disclosure guidelines. With these arriving in the wake of increasingly stringent climate focused requirements it has become difficult for resource-constrained in-house investment teams to keep up with developments. The FfB Foundation has therefore sought to provide a convenient, centralised resource to help keep institutional investors on track.
The 19 programmes are designated according to their relevance to investors, banks, insurers, or corporates as well as their level of focus on engagement, measurement and data, target setting, reporting and disclosure, positive impact, and public policy advocacy. Dedicated factsheets are provided for each initiative, which include links to their latest reports and key actions thus far.
Among the changes highlighted in the latest FfB update are the PRI’s Spring initiative on nature-focused stewardship, which encourages collaborative engagement by institutional investors towards the 60 companies identified as having the greatest influence on deforestation around the globe. The PRI is also supporting greater policy advocacy by investors on nature-related matters.
The Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC), a global multi-stakeholder initiative founded in 2016 by Cornell University, UBS, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and The Nature Conservancy, has also published new investment blueprints for its more than 100 member institutions. These are intended to facilitate the creation of replicable financial structures for investments in priority conservation projects.
The Finance for Biodiversity Foundation aims to provide such updates annually, alongside its range of investor guides on nature-related metrics, biodiversity engagement strategies, and various sector focused publications that are freely available for investors to download on its website. To date, 81 financial institutions have signed the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge.
