Nature Action 100: Investor coalition to engage with big businesses on biodiversity

Image: Natural England

Nature Action 100 was launched as a global initiative in December 2022 and features prominent financial firms including AXA Investment Managers, BNP Paribas, the Church Commissioners for England, Robeco and more.

The coalition has identified 100 companies – representing $9trn in market capital – that are considered highly dependent on nature and ecosystems due to the sectors in which they operate in. Companies that will be the focus of engagement include McDonald’s, Unilever and General Mills.

Nature Action 100 is sending letters to the 100 companies, calling for urgent and necessary actions to protect and restore nature and ecosystems and thereby mitigate financial risk.

Commenting on the launch, BNP Paribas Asset Management’s head of stewardship Adam Kanzer said: “As a member of the Nature Action 100 Launching Investor Group, we are gratified and energized by the strong response we’ve received from both asset managers and asset owners around the world. We believe this sends a very strong signal to the global markets – we must work together to reverse the systemic risk of nature loss.

“We have limited time, but working together with these 100 companies, we believe we can make a considerable difference. The real work begins now.”

A report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2020 concluded that at least half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature. In signing the call to action, the businesses and financial firms acknowledge this.

Investor participants will engage with companies to drive action in eight sectors deemed systemically important in reversing nature and biodiversity loss by 2030. The sectors include biotechnology and pharmaceuticals; chemicals; household and personal goods; consumer goods retail; food; food and beverage retail; forestry and paper; and metals and mining.

The launch comes one week after the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) published its finalised set of recommendations, intended to harmonise corporate disclosures on their nature-related risks and impacts.

By disclosing in line with the TNFD, businesses will be providing information in a unified format to stakeholders including regulators and investors. They will also be preparing for a forthcoming mandate on corporate nature-related disclosures, which more than 190 nations are committed to implementing by 2030 under the UN’s biodiversity treaty.

Companies look set to adopt the recommendations. Companies with combined annual revenues of $1.5trn have previously called on world leaders to mandate that all large businesses and financial institutions should assess their impacts and dependencies on nature by the end of the decade.