COP15 conference raises stakes for Australia's commitment to maintaining biodiversity: KPMG

KPMG’s global expert on biodiversity believes Australia will come under increasing scrutiny for its commitment to saving nature.

Delegates attending the COP15 in Montreal, Canada. Picture: AFP

Australian companies will come under increasing scrutiny for their commitment to biodiversity and impact on nature in the wake of last week’s COP15 meeting in Canada, KPMG’s global lead director of natural capital and biodiversity, Carolin Leeshaa, has warned.

Ms Leeshaa, who has just returned from the UN-backed conference that reached a landmark agreement on biodiversity, said the conference was a sign of the strong global commitment to take more action on preserving natural capital.

She said there was potential for companies to eventually face mandatory reporting requirements on biodiversity in the same way that mandatory reporting requirements were in train for carbon emissions.

Australian companies were well placed to take opportunities to help deliver on the outcomes of the meeting, which included more conservation and management of at least 30 per cent of the world’s wetlands, inland waters, coastal areas and oceans, and ending the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance.

Other aspects of the agreement included reducing the use of pesticides and hazardous chemicals, phasing out subsidies worth $US500m ($750m) a year that harmed biodiversity by 2030, and mobilising at least $US200bn in funding to assist biodiversity by 2030.

The signatories to the agreement, including Australia, also agreed to “require large and transnational institutions to monitor, access and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity through their operations, supply and value chains and portfolios”.

Chinese Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu starts proceedings at COP15 in Montreal on December 19. Picture: AFP

Ms Leeshaa said the agreement “provided an urgent message to business” to assess the impact of their operations on ­nature. She said companies should be on notice that some form of mandatory reporting requirements would eventually be required.

Australia also needed to have a “considered approach” on how it would finance the transition to a more “nature positive” environment, Ms Leeshaa said.

She said the agreement at the conference was a warning that there would be a global shift away from finance being available for companies that were not seen as taking action on biodiversity and taking a more positive approach to preserving nature.

Companies would also need to assess their dependence on operations that were seen as harming nature.

The conference had delivered a message that moving to net carbon zero by 2050 would also involve a commitment to becoming “nature positive”.

Ms Leeshaa said it was important that companies began assessing how to disclose their impact on nature in line with global standards, including the Task Force on Nature Related Financial Disclosures.

She said financial service companies and businesses would “need to consider the type of data they will need to collect and the tools they will need to measure, assess and report on their impact on nature and biodiversity”.

Ms Leeshaa said the conference, which was attended by Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, was the equivalent to the agreement reached in Paris in 2015 to limit global warming to 2C by 2050.

She said it was also significant that Australia and the US last week had signed a joint communique to work together on ­accounting for “natural capital” and environmental economic statistics and “nature-based ­solutions”.