Glaring gaps in tools to estimate businesses’ biodiversity impacts hinder alignment with the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework

Abstract

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, in a first-time move, calls for companies and financial institutions to measure and report their impacts on biodiversity. While many tools that measure businesses' biodiversity footprints have recently emerged (“biodiversity indices”), it is unclear whether they really allow companies to measure what the Global Biodiversity Framework requires. Identifying gaps in biodiversity indices concerning the GBF would aid businesses and strengthen its implementation. To fill this gap, here we assessed the degree of the alignment between the indices and the Global Biodiversity Framework. The businesses’ biodiversity indices identified by the European Union Business @ Biodiversity Platform and the Taskforce for Nature Financial Disclosures were selected. A semi-quantitative gap analysis was applied to compare their capabilities against the metrics extracted from the Global Biodiversity Framework. The glaring gaps were found in existing biodiversity indices in the coverage of the metrics needed to support the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework by businesses. Metrics related to ecosystem integrity, connectivity and restoration, nature-based solutions, sea use change, aquatic biodiversity, genetic diversity and resources, the territory and knowledge by Indigenous Peoples, and urban green and blue spaces were insufficiently addressed by most available biodiversity indices. There is an urgent need to develop integrated biodiversity indices if businesses are to effectively measure and disclose their impacts on biodiversity in a way more consistent with the Global Biodiversity Framework.