The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), within the framework of the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IEEB), today organised a seminar to analyse the role of the private sector in defining the new global biodiversity framework.

Under the title “Private sector in the post-2020 CBD process”, representatives of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), business organizations, and some IEEB member companies have shared their vision and experience in the process of defining the new global framework for biodiversity work. which will be approved at the Conference of the Parties to Biodiversity (COP15).

The CBD plans to adopt a new global biodiversity agenda (post-2020 framework) that will define international biodiversity priorities in the next decade in order to deliver on Vision 2050 “Living in harmony with nature“. It will do so during COP 15, which held its first part with the High-Level Segment last October, and which will culminate with a second part that is scheduled for spring 2022.

During the day, Oliver Hillel, head of the Biodiversity, Economy, Transformation and Innovation Unit of the CBD Secretariat, highlighted the perspectives and challenges of companies in the UN post-2020 framework for biodiversity, detailing the objectives of the draft that are directly linked to business action, as well as the phases of the COP in which companies will be able to participate in 2022. Among the opportunities for action arising from the new framework for the private sector, Hillel highlighted the identification of the dependencies and impacts of companies on biodiversity, working with supply chains or the evolution of financial instruments to invest in green. concluded his speech by highlighting the essential role of companies in this new framework, which will need to take collective action through collaborative initiatives such as the IEEB, and in a scenario in which we already have important examples of success such as the Business for Nature and Finance for Biodiversity initiatives.

For her part, Tania López Piñeiro, deputy deputy director general of the Sub-Directorate General of Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity of MITECO, has analysed the process of the new global biodiversity framework, as well as the working draft, under the prism of business action. López Piñero stressed the importance of integrating biodiversity in all sectors in order to reverse the process of loss of natural capital. He also pointed out that the development of initiatives and collaborative alliances between the public and private sectors in the field of biodiversity conservation are essential to move forward.

This seminar marks the beginning of the new actions of the IEEB, which has recently undergone a process of strategic reflection with the aim of establishing a new work plan and thus strengthening its activities and aligning them with new national and international challenges.

About the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative

Since 2013, the Biodiversity Foundation has coordinated the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IEEB), which bringstogether 30 large Spanish companies and 5 strategic partners. The companies are representative of sectors such as energy, extractives, construction, urban services, food and beverages, transport or cosmetics, among others.

Since its inception, the IEEB has been key to engaging and working with the Spanish private sector, promoting together economic development that integrates biodiversity and natural capital.

The IEEB, as a forum for collaboration and knowledge centre, is a nexus of connection between large companies, public administration and the third sector to move towards economic development compatible with the conservation of our natural capital. It responds to the need for knowledge exchange and to contribute to the development of these new tools and the creation of alliances that set in motion mechanisms for private and public-private financing of biodiversity action.