Business wants access to resources, capital and markets, and a seat at the global policy development table in order ensure it has a licence to operate. At a time of growing concern about pressure on natural resources and the need for sustainability, business also has to use the language of biodiversity and sustainable development. But its motives, influence and outcomes in terms of biodiversity conservation, sustainable use and equitable benefits need to be assessed.
In 2019 we are still waiting for steps to be taken to reduce the direct and indirect influence of business on biodiversity decisions in order to assert the primacy of biodiversity, to be governed by the CBD, not the corporate sector.
At CBD COP 11, business was omnipresent. There were more than 70 events described as ‘business-related’ around COP11 in Hyderabad. It is worth looking a little more closely at the groupings involved. For example, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), originally commissioned by the G8 +5 was linked to several of them. The TEEB for Business Coalition (now called Natural Capital Coalition) had powerful founder members including a UK accountancy institute, large conservation organisations and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which was involved in 3 side events. This is a very large group whose emergence dates back to the Earth Summit of 1992. Top business clusters within WBCSD include 23 utilities and power companies, 17 oil and gas, 17 engineering, 17 chemical companies, 13 consumer goods, 13 cement, 12 mining and 11 tyre companies.