BCSDH ’Transform Talks’: Climate change is a symptom that nature is in trouble
The decline of biodiversity and climate change must be considered together, as they are mutually influencing processes. The resulting challenges have now become financial and operational risks. Therefore it is important to understand what the business sector needs to do to foster for systemic change and speed up the process in order to protect and restore natural diversity, as well as promote climate adaptation.
This was the topic of this year’s BCSDH ‘Transform Talks’ CEO Roundtable discussion series, in which more than 40 company leaders participated and shared their thoughts on the topic, the events were led by Márta Irén, BCSDH’s managing director.
The importance of the situation is shown by the fact that in December 2022, a historic agreement was reached at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal. The majority of the ministers and government officials of the 190 countries participating in the event agreed that the protection of biodiversity should be a priority.
During the round table discussions, it emerged that the companies have the commitment, but so far they are less aware of the areas in which they need to act in order to protect and restore nature. At the same time, there are already companies that consciously assess the effects and opportunities on nature resulting from their own operations, and there are forward-looking business solutions that are also exemplary at the industry level.
It was also clearly seen that the involvement of experts is especially justified in this topic, since it is a special area where the impact must also be examined in a complex way. The built environment also has many opportunities for climate-neutral operation. It is also an important lesson that in many cases even a small change or innovation can bring significant results, which does not require a large investment, and can even bring savings.
The concrete results of the ‘Transform Talks’ CEO Roundtable discussions and the business recommendations regarding biodiversity will be presented at the BCSDH Business Lunch on 12th October, together with the company’s best practices.
Special thanks to the hosts of the events for providing the venue, the photo galleries can be viewed at the links below:
