The long-anticipated Nature Action 100 was officially formed during a session at COP15 on Sunday.
Billed as the biodiversity equivalent to Climate Action 100+, the initiative aims to drive greater corporate ambition and action on tackling nature loss and biodiversity decline.
Investor signatories will engage companies in key sectors deemed to be systemically important to the goal of reversing nature and biodiversity loss by 2030. The progress of target companies will be tracked against key indicators.
The initiative will also support investor and corporate advocacy efforts with relevant policymakers on nature-focused policies.
In June 2021, Responsible Investor exclusively revealed that Robeco, the World Bank, the World Benchmark Alliance (WBA) and the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge were exploring the possibility of developing a nature equivalent to the influential CA100+ with several other unnamed global investors.
Since then institutional heavyweights including Storebrand Asset Management, BNP Paribas Asset Management, AXA Investment Managers, the Church Commissioner for England and Federated Hermes have backed the initiative.
Last month, it was announced that the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and sustainability advocacy non-profit Ceres will co-lead the secretariat and corporate engagement workstreams. Finance for the Biodiversity Foundation and Planet Tracker were also revealed as co-leads of the technical advisory group, which will help to identify priority engagements and develop science-based investor guidance and tools.
“Over the years, there have been many important investor engagements with corporations that touched on aspects of the biodiversity crisis, but none that placed biodiversity front and centre, focusing on reversing nature loss by 2030,” said Adam Kanzer, head of stewardship, Americas at BNP Paribas Asset Management.
“Nature Action 100 intends to fill that gap, engaging a broad range of companies on their most significant impacts to help place them on nature-positive pathways. We have no time to lose.”
An official launch of Nature Action 100 will take place next year.