Finance Denmark and the UN Global Compact Network Denmark will facilitate more knowledge sharing on biodiversity among Nordic banks and companies

The world's nature is in a critical state. This is established in reports from The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) - biodiversity's parallel to the UN's climate panel (IPCC). This situation poses a significant risk for all companies whose business requires raw materials from nature, clean water, and pollination of plants. It is also a significant risk for the many investors and banks that have granted loans to or invested in these companies. It is therefore important that companies worldwide become better at taking care of nature. To that end, Finance Denmark will - in partnership with the UN Global Compact Network Denmark -enter a collaboration with the global initiative Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). 

If we want to save nature worldwide, we need to work together across national borders and sectors. We need to improve knowledge sharing and concrete experiences so that companies can learn how to measure their footprint on nature and incorporate considerations for nature into their decisions from each other. And when companies become better at reporting on their nature footprint, the financial sector will be better able to channel capital away from activities that damage nature and towards activities that make it flourish," says Birgitte Søgaard Holm, Executive Director, Investments and Savings, Finance Denmark. 

In practice, Finance Denmark will set up and run a Nordic consultation group that will facilitate knowledge sharing and the exchange of experiences among companies and financial institutions that want to focus on biodiversity and learn more about the global work performed under the auspices of TNFD. 

Translating policy into practice

Politicians are no doubt beginning to realize the importance of biodiversity. At the UN summit COP15 in Montreal in December 2022, a worldwide agreement was reached to preserve nature and promote biodiversity. Biodiversity also forms part of the EU Commission's strategy for sustainable finance. But to get started, guidelines and globally harmonized calculation methods are needed – and here the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) plays a central role, because it is a global initiative offering concrete tools to get started.  

“The biodiversity crisis is inextricably linked to the climate crisis but does not receive the same attention. That is why we are making an extra effort with the consultation group to mobilize the financial sector in the Nordics around nature and biodiversity. We do this both to secure financing for, among other things, preservation of ecosystems and restoration of nature, but also to encourage investors to demand more of the companies they invest in. It is not enough to reduce the climate footprint if we simultaneously overconsume the natural resources on which we are so deeply dependent," says Sara Krüger Falk, Director of the UN Global Compact Network Denmark 

Together with the UN Global Compact Network Denmark and the TNFD secretariat, Finance Denmark is planning the first meeting of the group, which will take place in April 2023.