Putting nature, wellbeing, and resilience at the heart of a new economic model: CISL

Three prime recommendations including putting nature at the heart of all policy and regulation have been proposed amid the ongoing negotiation at COP15 in Montreal to help drive a nature-positive transformation of the society and economy

Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership has called on policymakers and leaders to show new vision and leadership by embedding nature across their policies and practices amid the ongoing negotiation to save nature at COP15, Montreal.

The world’s leading think-tank has come up with three prime recommendations including putting nature at the heart of all policy and regulation to help drive a nature-positive transformation of the society and economy

“The time for new vision and leadership is now. Leading businesses and financial institutions are starting to embed nature across their practices and urgently need a supportive policy framework. More broadly, all countries_whatever the level of their economic development_need to grow with nature and not against nature. 

“Putting nature and climate at the heart of policy across nations will require greater trust between countries and sectors, something in increasingly short supply,” said the institute.

CISL has proposed three prime recommendations to tackle the nature crisis collaboratively and holistically and for driving a nature-positive transformation of the society and economy in its briefing released this week.

First and foremost, Tackle the nature and climate crises as one, CISL said. “We must set the bar high for meaningful action to achieve net zero while protecting and restoring nature. We must integrate nature loss risks into existing assessments of climate change risk, and avoid unintended impacts of climate solutions upon nature,” the institute recommended.

Secondly, put nature at the heart of all policy and regulation. CISL said governments must integrate nature into decision-making at all levels and be highly ambitious. This includes creating an enabling environment for business and finance to drive activities aligned with nature restoration and regeneration and acting to end the overexploitation of nature, particularly through the provision of harmful subsidies.

And lastly, embed nature in decision-making across business and finance. The institute said economic and financial systems need to transform how they view and value nature. Businesses must seek to adopt a regenerative model for nature. At the same time, financial institutions should integrate nature into financial decision-making to embed the logic of regeneration and support the transformation of the real economy.

“We are experiencing an unprecedented decline in nature, and humans are causing it. One million out of an estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction (IPBES). WWF’s recent Living Planet Report also revealed that global wildlife populations have seen average decline of nearly 70% in just 50 years. 

“Biodiversity encompasses the full variety of life. Billions of people depend on, appreciate and love nature. It is imperative to reverse the escalating biodiversity collapse and end what UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called a “senseless, suicidal war against nature”,” said the institute.

Read the full recommendations and rationales behind them at CISL’s COP15 briefing.