“Overcoming climate change and biodiversity loss“
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was created in 1948. It was during this post-war period, which was also difficult for the planet, that citizens and governments began expressing a desire to protect it. 75 years on, our world is at a crossroads. We have to choose which way to go: we can take action to preserve the planet, or we can continue to destroy it. Faced with this huge challenge, I wake up every day feeling energised and optimistic. I know that we, human beings, are capable of mobilising to change the course of events. We can fight climate change and the loss of biodiversity, which I see as two sides of the same crisis: our planet’s.
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organisations are committed to reporting on nature as part of the TNFD. Operating in 46 countries, they represent US$4 trillion in market capitalisation and US$14 trillion in assets under management.
Source : TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures), World Economic Forum, Davos, 16 January 2024.
With its global network, IUCN is a powerful platform able to coordinate the actions of our members. One of our major contributions is to generate the knowledge required to help make the right decisions. For example, 60 years ago, we established the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which now includes 157,190 assessed species around the world(1). This list has since developed into a powerful tool to inform and catalyse action for biodiversity conservation and policy change.
More recently, we moved to support the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), an initiative we strongly believe in. The launch of the taskforce is an important step towards redirecting international financial flows so that they no longer have a negative impact on nature and living systems. Its final recommendations were published in September 2023.
The TNFD involves companies and private financial institutions, and this is crucial to achieving our goals in terms of protecting the planet. It gives me great satisfaction that so many of them have already adopted this framework. It shows they are aware of just how important biodiversity conservation is when it comes to building a sustainable future. They must now implement the recommendations as quickly as possible. At IUCN, we’re available to help them do so, with tools that have demonstrated their effectiveness(2).
Banks such as BNP Paribas (which, in 2020, was involved in the initial design of the TNFD) can have an impact on the course of events by guiding their customers towards practices that benefit our planet. The sustainability-linked loans set up by BNP Paribas are an example of such practices. Their interest rates are indexed to companies’ CSR performance. This type of initiative must be adopted more widely, because we don’t have much time to turn things around.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Created in 1948 to contribute to a just world that values and conserves nature, IUCN celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023. It is the globe’s largest and most diverse environmental network. It draws on the knowledge, resources and responsiveness of over 1,400 members, governments and civil society organisations, and a network of 16,000 experts around the world. This diversity and expertise make IUCN the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.