Frankfurt Declaration for the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15)

Our six demands to policymakers:

1. A level playing field for companies – smart, knowledge-based sustainability regulations for a positive biodiversity development. The intended goal is to establish nature-positive business practices as the standard. To this end, it is essential to hold polluters accountable for the social costs of exploiting nature and its resources. This means internalizing the costs that have thus far been imposed on the general public or on future generations. In this context, it is important to create equitable framework conditions, provide companies with planning security, offer meaningful incentives, and effectively curtail greenwashing.
2. Uniform standards and mandatory biodiversity reporting by companies. Policymakers must ensure that companies and financial institutions regularly measure (or arrange for the measurement of) their direct and indirect use of biodiversity and other natural resources in accordance with a science-based, uniform procedure, and report on how they implement improvements along the value chains. A corresponding commitment must be adopted at the COP15.
3. Immediate reduction of environmentally harmful subsidies. Existing financial incentives, tax regulations, and subsidies must be reformed in such a way that public and private financial flows are directed toward nature-positive activities. This creates a level playing field for companies and prevents market distortions. An effective agreement at the COP15 is required to achieve this goal.
4. Ensuring deforestation-free supply chains. The respective EU regulation must be adopted before the end of this year and be implemented in a timely manner. In addition, the regulation must be extended globally to cover all natural ecosystems (including savannahs, grasslands, and wetlands).
5. Adopting the “30×30” target (protection of at least 30 percent of all terrestrial and marine habitats by 2030) as well as ambitious renaturation goals. The focus of both targets, which must be adopted at the COP15, should be on ecosystems with the highest importance for biodiversity and climate protection. It is further essential to implement the 30×30 target in a verifiable manner. As recognized, nature-based solutions, these targets often provide the opportunity for companies to invest in “carbon offset” programs, thus contributing to the implementation of both targets. In order to prevent “greenwashing,” globally uniform, binding, and science-based minimum standards are required.
6. Inclusion of biodiversity in the “Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda” initiated by the German federal government – be it for new food products, biodiversity informatics and analytical techniques, or in the fields of biomaterials, bionics, and biopharmaceuticals. In addition, a more effective national biodiversity strategy is needed. This includes setting verifiable biodiversity targets analogous to the climate targets and a binding implementation in all public projects – including the possibility of sanctions in the event the targets are not met.