Investments in biodiversity pay off

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to create decent lives worldwide, and it concerns both industrialized and developing countries. It contains 17 global goals (Sustainable Development Goals SDGs): For example, they are intended not only to reduce poverty and hunger, but also to preserve the natural foundations of life, enable smart innovations or a high-performance industry. As different as the topics and challenges are, they are strongly interlinked. Some goals are mutually dependent, and achieving one goal (e.g., access to clean water) leads to co-benefits in another (promoting health). Some, on the other hand, are more in conflict - if you want to achieve one goal, you harm another. This is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows the impact of the two biodiversity sustainability goals SDGs 14 and 15 (life under water and life on land, respectively) on the other goals. The data are the result of a systematic compilation of current knowledge on the interactions between the SDGs (Pham-Truffert et al 2019). If the interaction results in additional benefits, these are marked in blue in the circle; conflicting goals are marked in red. The narrow circles signal either knowledge gaps or also weaker interactions between two goals.

Biodiversity - strongest lever for achieving sustainability

Recent studies on the interactions between the SDGs have identified biodiversity conservation as one of the strongest levers for achieving sustainability. This is shown in a new fact sheet by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Switzerland (Obrecht et al 2021). It makes clear that investments in the "biodiversity goals" SDG 14 (life in water) and SDG 15 (life on land) are decidedly favorable for the achievement of all other goals (see Figure 1). For example, rich biodiversity is important for food security, health and well-being, clean drinking water, economic growth, and sustainable cities, among other things - and it supports addressing the climate crisis.

Using sustainable cities and communities as an example (SDG 11): Here it is shown that investments in biodiverse and green spaces in and around urban areas are worthwhile, as they make cities and settlements friendlier, healthier, and more resilient. In particular, biodiversity contributes to improving air quality, urban cooling, noise reduction, improving water runoff and preventing flooding, and providing green space for recreation. Accordingly, biodiversity should be much more integrated into urban planning and development, involving architecture and urban planning, horticulture, entrepreneurship, and the public.

Using climate protection as an example (SDG 13): Intact ecosystems can mitigate and help better adapt to climate change. Oceans and terrestrial ecosystems such as peatlands and diverse forests contribute significantly to climate change mitigation. They represent significant carbon stores globally, absorb about half of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and are natural buffers against extreme climate and weather events. Restoring 15 percent of degraded lands could prevent 60 percent of expected species extinctions while sequestering 300 gigatons of CO2, equivalent to 30 percent of the total CO2 increase in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. Nature-based solutions ("Nature-based Solutions") are the most cost-effective and sustainable ways to address climate change and its impacts.

Addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis together

Conversely, biodiversity can only be preserved if we succeed in significantly slowing down climate change. After all, climate change is the third greatest threat to biodiversity worldwide, after land-use change and resource extraction, and the trend is rising. Biodiversity goals are also particularly damaged in other ways when they are disregarded in the implementation of other sustainability goals, for example in the production of food and energy. The 2019 report of the World Biodiversity Council (IPBES) notes drastically accelerated species extinctions worldwide. Overall, 0.5 to 1 million species out of about 8 million are at risk, and 14 out of 18 services provided by nature, such as pollination or clean air, are dwindling. The growth of global trade as well as the global economy are the main causes underlying the threat to biodiversity. In the last 30 years, the global economy has increased sevenfold and global trade eightfold.

What to do about the biodiversity crisis?

A large potential for action lies in misaligned incentives through subsidies that adversely affect biodiversity. A study by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Swiss Biodiversity Forum (SCNAT) identifies over 160 subsidies in eight different policy areas with a negative effect on biodiversity (Gubler et al 2020). The majority of biodiversity-damaging subsidies occur in the transport, agriculture and energy production/consumption sectors. Their magnitude exceeds the nature conservation budget many times over. The study makes recommendations as to which subsidies should be redesigned or, if necessary, abolished.

Transformative change is necessary

Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Biological Diversity (IPBES) emphasize that business as usual is no longer an option. We need to set out on the road to fundamental economic and social change, to transformation. This requires not only technological, economic and social changes, but also adjustments to our paradigms, goals and values. The focus is on decoupling a good quality of life from economic growth and resource consumption. A shared sense of responsibility for nature is a basic prerequisite for reversing the ongoing loss of biodiversity through large-scale conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity. Switzerland also wants to advance its sustainable development with a new strategy for the next ten years, which has just been in consultation (see under www.are.admin.ch/sne). Biodiversity (with climate and energy) is to be one of the focal points, along with sustainable consumption and production and equal opportunities.

What can companies do?

In order to drive a transformation toward a circular economy and increase the share of sustainably producing companies, the state can help by promoting innovation and supporting functioning niche industries/products. Information on resource consumption and transparency regarding the origin of raw materials and materials also help on the consumer side. Increased corporate accountability for their environmental impacts and the right incentives, such as better disclosure of private sector dependence and influence on biodiversity and ecosystem services, would help engage the private sector in implementing environmental sustainability goals. New coalitions and initiatives such as the Science Based Targets Network (https://sciencebasedtargetsnetwork.org/), Business for Nature (https://www.businessfornature.org) and We Value Nature (https://wevaluenature.eu/) are platforms through which the private sector can be engaged in global efforts to address biodiversity loss. Very useful guidance on how companies can plan and monitor their "biodiversity performance" has recently been produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (Stephenson & Carbone 2021).

Author: Dr. Eva Spehn, Research Associate at the Swiss Biodiversity Forum of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) in Bern. www.scnat.biodiversitaet.ch

Sources

• Obrecht, A., Pham-Truffert, M., Spehn E. et al (2021): Achieving the SDGs with Biodiversity. Swiss Academies Factsheet 16 (1) http://bit.ly/Biodiversität_SDGs

• Gubler, L., Ismail, S.A., Seidl, I., 2020: Biodiversity-damaging subsidies in Switzerland. Baseline report. WSL Reports, 96. 216 p. https://www.wsl.ch/de/publikationen/default-ce4ededcc5.html

• Stephenson, P.J. and Carbone, G. (2021). Guidelines for planning and monitoring corporate biodiversity performance. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2021-009-En.pdf

• Pham-Truffert, M., Rueff, H., Messerli, P. (2019). Knowledge for Sustainable Development: Interactive repository of SDG interactions. In: CDEdatablog. https://datablog.cde.unibe.ch/index.php/2019/08/29/sdg-interactions.

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