Tag Archives: resilience

Reflections from the EU Business and Nature Summit 2025: Building the Business Case for Nature

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Vastaus

A week ago, I attended the EU Business and Nature Summit (EBNS). Reading through my notes and reflecting on two days of discussions across multiple sessions, keynotes, panels, and coffee-break conversations, gave me a hopeful outlook on the work being done for nature.

Over the past few years, I’ve grown used to biodiversity events full of enthusiasm but a bit lacking practical perspectives. EBNS turned out to be a very positive surprise. Huge thanks to the organisers for blending policy and business perspectives so smoothly.

Nature is vital to all of us, and to the economy and business. Still, as many discussions highlighted, we need a stronger and clearer business case for nature. There are already many promising tools and concepts in place, including nature-based solutions, regenerative farming, nature restoration, ecological compensation, and nature credits. Biodiversity Net Gain policy in the UK also came up frequently during the sessions.

Thank you to all the colleagues and new contacts I had the chance to speak with over lunch or coffee. I listened carefully to your insights and came away with several ideas for how NaturAI can further support companies in their nature-related work. While many impacts on nature occur within value chains and are assessed through different forms of nature footprinting, there is a clear and growing need for data gathered directly from nature. To make better-informed decisions that reduce impacts and enhance biodiversity, it is wise to make use of the possibilities that technologies such as ecoacoustics and AI can offer.

EBNS showed that restoring nature is not only possible, it’s already underway. With the right data, partnerships, and ambition, we can accelerate this nature-positive shift together. 

#EBNS #EBNS25 #nature #biodiversity #restoration #naturecredits #businessandbiodiversity #NBS #naturefinance #sustainablefinance #ecoacoustics #AI #naturetech 

About the costs of climate change, hidden or not 

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Vastaus

Climate change has widespread but often overlooked economic and social costs, particularly in how it affects human capital development, labor productivity, and educational outcomes. In his book ”Slow Burn – the Hidden Costs of a Warming World” R. Jisung Park gives an economist’s view on the everyday implications of climate change and what it will cost us. But before telling more about Park’s book I want to remind of an interesting Finnish research publication, exploring the costs of climate change for Finland. The KUITTI project assessed the direct and indirect costs of climate change risks for Finland a few years ago. 

https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/164032

The key takeaway for me from Kuitti was that slowly changing operating conditions, driven by rising temperatures and changes in precipitation, known as chronic physical climate risks, can cause significantly greater economic damage than extreme weather events if adaptation remains insufficient. The KUITTI project highlights that proactive adaptation is worthwhile. So, we should not only look at climate catastrophe events, but try to better understand the costs of chronic risks and also the hidden costs Park writes about.

Even though I don’t agree with some conclusions that Park makes based on statistics, I can recommend this book, if you are interested in learning more about the costs were are facing with rising temperatures and how the costs occur. 

Debates over proper adaptation will increase in the future, also in countries where the most visible climate hazards do not occur. 

Having a clearer picture of physical climate risks of an area is a good start but it is not enough. We also need to learn about socioeconomical details of climate vulnerability. The hotter temperature is not the only thing hurting us, but also how it impacts human institutions, economic, educational, legal, and political. 

In his book Park analyzes the negative effects global warming has on learning and human capital. Global warming and education is a topic not covered very often and I found it interesting. Rising temperatures and climate-induced disruptions, such as heat waves and school closures, are not just environmental challenges but economic issues. These factors silently undermine learning, reduce cognitive function, and limit future earnings potential, particularly for vulnerable populations. Forest fires are one example in the book too. The smoke has severe costs, not only the flames. 

Park also writes about justice. According to Park, at least two dimensions of climate justice are in danger of being overlooked within the prevailing narrative.The first is the highly local way in which climate change may vary. The second is that we still know little about why some groups are hurt more than others and how the impacts spread across the global economy through interlinkages. These questions go beyond the familiar thinking that poor countries and poorer people suffer more. 

Also for those interested in supply chains and housing markets, Park offers food for thought. 

We need to shift perspective. Climate change is not just about extreme weather events or long-term sea level rise; it is already affecting daily life, workforce performance, and social mobility according to Park. He calls for integrating climate resilience into education, labor policies, and infrastructure planning to mitigate these hidden costs.

#climatechange #adaptation #resilience #climatejustice #economics #physicalrisks #transitionrisks #policy 

An overview of adaptation taxonomies

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Vastaus

Already in the early stages of the EU Taxonomy I was specifically interested in the adaptation criteria. And also a bit worried how companies would succeed to use them. For me they seem somewhat complicated without clear thresholds such as those included in the mitigation criteria. When the EU taxonomy was being formulated, adaptation didn’t gather significant attention.

I’m thankful for a true adaptation specialist Maaria Parry who recommended this analysis of adaptation taxonomies (written by University of Oxford experts) to me. Climate adaptation is a must whether we want it or not.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4874598

Here are some main points of the analysis which I find important.

  • There are 24 adaption taxonomies published in the last four years
  • Growing adaptation finance gap is around 194-366 billion USD per year
  • The lack of understanding and standardized definitions of what is and is not adaptation is one of the barriers to adaptation finance
  • A difference to mitigation is that adaptation is location-specific and dynamic and requires a process-based component

In the analysis some common features and differences of the 24 adaptation taxonomies are pointed out.

  • Taxonomies include typically activities that are adapted and activities that enable adaptation
  • Some include even a third type of activity, activities that share goals with adaptation and development
  • Certain principles are common, such as risk assessment, DNSH, plans and targets
  • The least mentioned principle is alignment with net-zero
  • Some taxonomies include a list of eligible activities and some not
  • There is also variation in the sectoral coverage, eg the EU Taxonomy misses some sectors relevant for adaptation, such as agriculture

As recommendations the analysis suggests clear international principles for taxonomy development, richer lists of eligible activities and through forming a global inventory of adaptation investments addressing the question ’what is an effective adaptation intervention for a specific climate-related risk and specific asset type?’

Thanks for an interesting paper and I recommend all interested in climate risks, resilience and adaptation to read this and pay attention to finance taxonomies possible role in making our societies and businesses more climate resilient. Still a lot to achieve there I guess.

#eutaxonomy #taxonomy #adaptation #resilience #sustainablefinance #comparison #futuredevelopment #climate