Jury’s out on funding nature

By Anna Fedorova

Protecting and restoring biodiversity is still in its infancy in asset management with a lack of reliable data hindering engagement

Planet Earth as we know it would not exist without its oceans and forests, thousands of varieties of mammals, birds, fish and millions of insect species. This varied natural world is typically referred to under the umbrella term biodiversity.

Biodiversity is currently under massive threat, with 69% of mammal, bird, reptile, fish and amphibian species already lost since 1970, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Living Planet Report 2022. That’s why protecting and restoring biodiversity is one of the essential areas of focus for sustainable investors.

However, progress on this has been a mixed bag over the past year. In March, we reported the World Economic Forum removed biodiversity from its list of the top 10 most pressing risks over the next two years – a move criticised for its short-sightedness.

Around the same time, the annual Point of No Returns report from ShareAction highlighted the lack of biodiversity voting and engagement policies at the world’s largest asset managers. It revealed that just 46% of European fund houses had a biodiversity voting policy and only half (49%) had an engagement policy, while the proportion reporting specific biodiversity commitments was just 27%.

Read the full article in ESG Clarity Intelligence’s first e-zine.