More than a dozen leading global businesses – from fashion and food to energy and transport – unveiled their efforts to address biodiversity loss and climate change at IUCN’s first-ever CEO Summit at the IUCN World Conservation Congress.
Business leaders, representing companies totalling more than US $1 trillion in market capital and $655 billion in annual turnover, underscored the business case for taking action to reduce their environmental impact, agreeing that more transformative partnerships are urgently needed to achieve a nature-positive future.
Addressing the Summit, IUCN’s Director General Dr Bruno Oberle warned that the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss should cause everyone in business and society at large to “reflect” on these impacts, stressing that business was crucial to driving the changes required to tackle these dual crises, which threaten the goal to provide a “decent life” and sustainable future for all.
“To achieve the developmental goals, we need to transform our society, use different products and services, create different types of infrastructure, and invest differently. And this is something that business is already used to – this is the reason why you are so important in this transition." Dr Bruno Oberle, IUCN Director General
The CEO Summit participants, which included IUCN Members and other partners, explained how safeguarding nature throughout value chains and in partnership with others was critical, as was developing new business models, policies and partnerships to help business achieve its commitments and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Link here to read the blog, “Radical collaboration and other reflections on the IUCN CEO Summit,” by Gerard Bos, Director, Business and Biodiversity Programme, which draws on report to the IUCN Members’ Assembly and highlights the outcomes of the Summit.
