Water and nature must be elevated to the same level of importance as carbon — strategies that fail to account for these interdependencies will fall short on impact.
As seen in Sustainable Brands. Read the full article here.
Fossil-based business models are existentially threatened, and the world’s largest corporations have the resources, capacity for innovation, and global reach to address these externalities while creating new business opportunities. The most significant economic opportunity of our generation is the transition to a lower-carbon, nature-positive, and regenerative future.
Over the last decade, corporate ambition has driven material change to business. However, many companies are still off track to meet their 2030 goals. Only 5% of companies have high-integrity climate transition strategies, and less than 1% of companies have assessed their dependencies on nature. Why? Corporations face inflationary factors, measurement and verification challenges, lack of clear and consistent policy frameworks, internal resistance to change, pressure from investors focused on short-term profits, and the complexity of integrating sustainability initiatives across entire supply chains.
While Climate Week broadened the conversation beyond carbon emissions to include water and nature, most global convenings remain too narrowly focused on carbon. As the COP16 Biodiversity Conference continues this week and we head toward COP29 in Azerbaijan next month, companies, governments, and civil society must broaden their focus beyond carbon to the urgent and interrelated challenges of water and nature.
