Enterprise teams block motion that would assist deal with biodiversity disaster, report finds | Lobbying
Business teams representing a few of the world’s largest firms are “against nearly all main biodiversity-relevant insurance policies” and are lobbying to dam them, in accordance with a brand new report.
Researchers discovered that 89% of engagement by main business associations in Europe and the US is designed to delay, dilute and block progress on tackling the biodiversity disaster, which scientists say is as severe because the local weather emergency. Simply 5% of assist was optimistic and the remaining 6% was combined or impartial, in accordance with the local weather thinktank InfluenceMap.
The researchers centered on associations representing 5 key sectors – agriculture, fisheries, forestry and paper, oil and fuel, and mining – which have the best impression on biodiversity loss.
The examine checked out 750 items of proof equivalent to press releases, weblog posts, studies, speeches and social media accounts, made by 12 business associations, together with the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, BusinessEurope, and European farmers’ curiosity group, Copa-Cogeca.
JP Morgan Chase, Amazon, Apple, Toyota, Microsoft, Samsung and ExxonMobil are among the many members of those associations. Researchers didn’t study whether or not these coverage positions aligned with the views of particular person firms, lots of which have made public commitments to defending biodiversity.
Q&A
What’s biodiversity and why does it matter?
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Biodiversity – quick for organic variety – is the number of life on Earth, from the tiniest micro organism to the biggest mammals. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the meals we eat all depend on it – with out vegetation there could be no oxygen and with out bees to pollinate there could be no fruit or nuts.
Scientists are nonetheless attempting to know how the online of life suits collectively and, regardless of advances in expertise, we are able to nonetheless solely guess on the true variety of species on our planet. However Earth is experiencing the biggest lack of life because the dinosaurs, and people are guilty. The best way we mine, pollute, hunt, farm, construct and journey is placing at the least a million species prone to extinction, say consultants. The sixth mass extinction in geological historical past has already begun, some scientists assert, with billions of particular person populations being misplaced.
The 5 largest threats to biodiversity are: modifications in land and sea use; direct exploitation of pure assets; the local weather disaster; air pollution and invasive species.
The extinction of animals, bugs, vegetation, and all dwelling issues has large knock-on results. Species must work collectively in concord so as to thrive and supply the important companies people have to survive. The companies supplied by ecosystems are estimated to be value trillions of {dollars}. About half of worldwide GDP – equal to $42tn (£37tn) – depends on the wholesome functioning of the pure world, in accordance with the UN.
The world has to this point failed to fulfill any UN targets on halting the lack of nature however new targets might be set on the Cop15 biodiversity summit in Montreal in December 2022.
The US Chamber of Commerce has lobbied in opposition to efforts to manage PFAS, the widespread however largely poisonous “ceaselessly chemical substances” which are typically utilized in pesticides within the US. Copa-Cogeca, which represents farming teams, opposed pesticide discount targets within the EU’s biodiversity and “farm to fork” methods. It additionally opposed the EU’s ban on sure neonicotinoid pesticides. In 2021, the president of BusinessEurope printed an open letter that appeared to oppose the single-use plastics directive pointers.
A number of teams have mentioned the warfare in Ukraine is a motive to push again on biodiversity insurance policies and roll again regulation however in lots of instances these identical teams had been lobbying from related positions earlier than the warfare.
The American Petroleum Institute (API), for instance, has lobbied to weaken restrictions on oil and fuel manufacturing on federal land since 2017. In 2022, a letter to the US president, Joe Biden, strengthened this place, citing issues about power safety on account of the Ukraine invasion.
There was additionally profitable lobbying to roll again setting insurance policies underneath the Trump administration, and to weaken the Endangered Species Act within the US and the EU’s birds and habitats directive. The report discovered the API has been probably the most lively in lobbying in opposition to statutory safety of particular species equivalent to bees, seals and polar bears.
“Though business associations, particularly within the US, seem reluctant to debate the biodiversity disaster, they’re clearly engaged on a variety of insurance policies with important impacts on biodiversity loss,” researchers wrote within the report.
InfluenceMap has beforehand analysed firms’ positions on the local weather disaster. That is its first evaluation to focus particularly on biodiversity loss. The report is launched in preparation for the Cop15 biodiversity convention in Montreal in December the place UN targets for the following decade might be set. The world has failed to fulfill a single such goal in earlier years.
“Scientists are warning that biodiversity loss is happening globally at an unprecedented price, but highly effective business associations are overwhelmingly pushing again in opposition to insurance policies designed to sluggish or reverse this development,” mentioned Rebecca Vaughan, InfluenceMap’s programme supervisor, who wrote the report.
“This analysis sheds new gentle on an space of lobbying that has largely been capable of slip underneath the radar and may act as a wake-up name to policymakers forward of the UN’s upcoming biodiversity convention.
“Whereas it is probably not stunning that a few of these business associations are pushing again on environmental protections, the sheer scale and vary of lobbying on biodiversity-relevant coverage was stunning.
“This report additionally raises the query as as to whether these business associations are pretty representing the coverage positions of their company members, lots of which have made public commitments on biodiversity safety.”
The examine appeared on the EU and US as a result of the information was extra extensively accessible in these areas. A report by InfluenceMap launched earlier this yr discovered that main oil and fuel firms spend tens of hundreds of thousands publicising environmental work however solely 12% of their capital expenditure went into low-carbon improvement.
A spokesperson for Copa-Cogeca mentioned: “We by no means opposed the underlining goal of elevated sustainability and along with our members we very a lot work on finest methods to reconcile elevated sustainability and meals manufacturing. We consider that is key.”
The spokesperson mentioned Copa-Cogeca recognised the related danger of neonicotinoids however believed they had been necessary to take care of the manufacturing of sugar beet and oilseeds in Europe. “We have now volunteered to the European Fee for risk-reduction measures to scale back the publicity of pollinators however this has not been taken onboard.”
Chuck Chaitovitz, vice-president for environmental affairs and sustainability on the US Chamber of Commerce, mentioned: “The enterprise neighborhood helps accelerating cleanup of this broad group of chemistries, based mostly on the most effective science and danger. Nonetheless, all PFAS are usually not the identical. Many have societally priceless functions, from cellphones, medical gadgets, photo voltaic panels to public security and nationwide safety makes use of. The chamber has been engaged in discussions about how finest to deal with PFAS, whereas guaranteeing there aren’t unintended penalties and prices.”
Megan Bloomgren, API’s senior vice-president of communications, mentioned: “API member firms proceed to make investments in the direction of innovation, analysis and finest practices to additional scale back GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions and deal with the local weather problem.”
BusinessEurope didn’t reply to the Guardian’s request for remark.
Discover extra age of extinction protection right here, and comply with biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the most recent information and options
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