Corporate biodiversity commitments have multiplied since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, yet translating pledges into measurable operational change remains the central challenge. The scale of the gap is stark: in 2023, global public and private finance flows with directly negative impacts on nature were estimated at USD 7.3 trillion (IPBES, 2026), while only around USD 220 billion per year is directed toward biodiversity conservation and restoration. Against this backdrop, the 2026 IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment warns that the accelerating decline in biodiversity is not just an environmental concern, but a systemic risk threatening global economic stability, financial markets and human wellbeing.

 

Target 15 of the Kunming-Montreal GBF calls on businesses to assess, disclose and reduce their negative impacts on biodiversity, increase positive impacts, and reduce biodiversity-related risks. Target 19 calls for the mobilisation of financial resources at the scale needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss — including through the redirection of private finance away from nature-harmful activities. Progress on Target 18 is a key lever needed to accelerate business action as the lack of large-scale positive incentives and the widespread of subsidies having unintentional negative impacts on nature is a systemic barrier to business action on nature. It also is a risk for businesses as it also erodes the foundations of long-term economic productivity and market stability.  Companies have a responsibility to engage on this topic to first assess where their dependencies to subsidies and where positive action could be scaled up with positive incentives and then proactively engaging and supporting governments in reform processes to give policymakers the confidence to act, ensuring effective and practical reforms to ensure that resilient practices become the most commercially rational and competitive choice. Meeting those targets requires moving beyond disclosure and into practice, embedding biodiversity into governance structures, supply chains, site management, business strategy and investment decisions.

 

Act4Nature International is a voluntary initiative mobilising companies around biodiversity commitments, which was initiated by EPE (Entreprises pour l'Environnement) in 2018 and is carried by a multi-stakeholder collective of partners — AFEP, EPE, the Global Compact Network France, MEDEF, the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), Conservation International France, Noé, the French Committee of the IUCN, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), IDDRI and the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN). It brings together over 60 companies around individual, SMART biodiversity commitments signed by their CEOs, reviewed by an independent multi-stakeholder college of NGOs, scientists, business networks and public authorities. This architecture, where NGO and scientific partners actively challenge and co-construct company commitments, is what distinguishes Act4Nature International from reporting frameworks alone. Since 2018, the initiative has tracked nearly 500 commitments across two reporting cycles; its biannual report analyses these commitments against the thematic axes of France's National Biodiversity Strategy (SNB) — the French implementation of the Kunming-Montreal GBF — generating a unique body of evidence on what drives genuine operational change, and what holds it back.

 

This side event will present concrete examples of companies that have embedded biodiversity into their core operations — from supply chain transformation and site-level management to governance reform and biodiversity measurement. It will also explore what the NGO partner perspective brings to this process: how civil society organisations, operating within the multi-stakeholder college of Act4Nature International, contribute to raising ambition, ensuring credibility, and connecting corporate action to broader conservation outcomes. It will connect these operational lessons to the findings of the 2026 IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, and explore what enabling conditions — including regulatory frameworks, financial incentives and multi-stakeholder accountability — accelerate the transition from ambition to action at scale.

 

The session will follow a format combining short, substantive company testimonies with structured discussion to move beyond pledges and into practice. It will draw on the complementary perspectives of NGO and scientific partners - including the French Committee of the IUCN and the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB) - and of business practitioners and coalitions such as Business for Nature (BfN), reflecting the multi-stakeholder architecture that underpins Act4Nature International.

 

Key discussion points will include:

• How companies across sectors are translating biodiversity commitments into operational change across their value chains, in line with Target 15

• The role of NGO partners in challenging, co-constructing and validating corporate biodiversity commitments — and what this model offers beyond self-reporting

• What the 2026 IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment reveals about corporate leverage points, measurement gaps and enabling conditions

• Methodological progress on corporate biodiversity measurement, including TNFD alignment, science-based targets and biodiversity footprint assessment

• How voluntary multi-stakeholder initiatives can contribute to — and connect with — national biodiversity strategies and the GBF implementation pathway

• The role of incentive reform in accelerating corporate biodiversity action: how companies can engage with Target 18 beyond compliance, and what positive incentive frameworks look like in practice

• Mobilising and redirecting private finance to support corporate biodiversity action, in line with Target 19

 

Proposed articulation integrating collaboration with scientific actors: 

 

• What knowledge do companies need to move from biodiversity commitments to operational decisions? (From disclosure to knowledge needs => we often assume that once companies commit, the challenge is implementation. But impact, dependencies, and how to monitor outcomes stay complex)

• What is the added value of engaging with the scientific community beyond compliance and reporting? (Why collaborate with science? E.g. anticipating future challenges; designing monitoring systems; generating credible evidence for decision-making)

• Can biodiversity research become more demand-driven while maintaining scientific integrity? (How can companies formulate research needs? Do we need a tier actor?

• How are the roles of NGOs and scientists complementary in supporting corporate biodiversity action? (NGOs and science are not interchangeable; NGOs bring: advocacy; field expertise; accountability; stakeholder perspectives)

 

Provisional guests:

 

Co-hosts: Act4Nature International (A4NI/EPE) · International Union for Conservation of Nature (CF UICN) · French Foundation for research on biodiversity (FRB) · Business for Nature (BfN)

Co-organisers: Act4Nature International (A4NI/EPE) · International Union for Conservation of Nature (CF UICN) · French Foundation for research on biodiversity (FRB)

 

NGO partner: Comité français de l'UICN

Scientific partner: French Foundation for research on biodiversity (FRB)  

Scientific speaker/panelist: The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

International partner: Business for Nature (BfN)

Companies (Act4Nature International members & IUCN & FRB partner companies):

- BNPP (confirmed) A4NI, FRB

- VEOLIA (confirmed) involved in FC IUCN, BfN, A4NI

- EDF  (confirmed) involved in BfN, A4N

- SUEZ (confirmed) A4NI, BfN

 

Moderator: Act4Nature International