H&M and Unilever: "Need for action to protect biodiversity"

On the eve of the United Nations Biodiversity Summit, the CEOs of several major companies, including H&M and Unilever, are calling on governments to take meaningful actions towards protecting ecosystems.

Conference

World leaders must do more to prevent the destruction of nature, companies like H&M, The Body Shop and Unilever warn. In an open letter, the top executives call on governments to take meaningful action against the mass extinction of wild animals and the collapse of ecosystems.

The warning comes at a time when China is preparing to chair a major UN environmental meeting for the first time. This week, the opening phase of the Cop15 conference on biological diversity will take place in Kunming, albeit largely virtually. Part two is scheduled for 24 April to 8 May 2022 and will be held on-site in Kunming. The aim is to set targets for this decade to prevent biodiversity loss.

Concrete targets are necessary

According to the letter’s signatories, the current proposals do not sufficiently tackle the problem and are too vague. They insist on a concrete and clear target, as was previously agreed for the climate (limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C), with which businesses and civil society can align.

In addition, they call on policymakers to abolish all environmentally harmful subsidies. “We need to track our impact on the climate and nature with the same discipline we track our profit and loss”, said Roberto Marques, CEO of Natura & Co (The Body Shop, Aesop) in The Guardian. “We are calling on governments to eliminate and redirect all harmful subsidies. Governments still provide a lot of subsidies for industries and initiatives that are very harmful for nature.”