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Nature Shares

Davos 2025 - We can't lose sight of the biggest challenges, despite short-term turbulence.

As the welcome events kicked off in late January in Davos, there was a different mood in the refreshing winter air.

The World Economic Forum annual meeting traditionally follows one week from the release of the Global Risks Report, which once again had listed biodiversity loss and critical change to earth systems (i.e. climate change) as the top risks in the next ten years.

Despite this, the words reverberating around the Alpine foothills were those of ‘drill baby drill’ coming out of Washington. How, when we have just witnessed some of the most catastrophic wildfires in living memory in the very same country, can the climate change message still not be sinking in?

Associate Ecologist and Innovation Lead Rob Wreglesworth, reflects on the World Economic Forum annual meeting.

Corporate responsibility

At a breakfast event hosted by the We Mean Business coalition, it became evident: progressive businesses have an even bigger responsibility, to look beyond short-term political attention seeking and continue to lead the way on issues around climate and nature.

Several Chief Sustainability Officers from some of the world’s biggest companies spoke about how decarbonisation simply makes business sense now, not only to start addressing long-term risks but financially in the short term too.

Reassuring statistics around the plummeting cost of solar and battery storage were shared and the sentiment shared around the tables was that the businessman in the White House is no longer thinking like a businessman.

Clear pathways for investment

Nature crept further inwards this year from the fringes, with events hosted by big names such as the Financial Times and Bloomberg. Environment Bank’s own Emma Toovey spoke on a panel alongside UNEP-FI on the topic of nature finance. There is now an understanding that nature investment is a big opportunity and investors’ ears are certainly pricking up.

We were invited to an event on increasing private finance flows into nature and yet again England’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legislation was pointed to as a great example of how policy can drive investment.

With so much appetite from investors to invest, surely, clearer pathways should be created for investment such as this? Hopefully this message gets through to the UK government as the world is watching and the success of future nature markets could rely more heavily than they realise on the successful implementation of BNG.

Environment Bank's Chief Land and Nature Officer Emma Toovey, with Marisa Drew, CSO at Standard Charter; Rhian-Mari Thomas, CEO at Green Finance Institute; Dr Manar Al Moneef, CIO at NEOM; Katherine Garrett-Cox, CEO at Gulf International Bank Asset Management; Naomi Kerbel, Director of Communications at SEC Newgate; and Andre Hoffman from Roche.

Innovation from the financial sector

At the Financial Times event on ‘Accelerating Business Action for Nature’, Andre Hoffman from Roche reiterated the purpose of business is not to simply increase shareholder value, and a very impressive all female panel featuring Bank of America and Cargill spoke about the business risk of nature loss and how innovative financial instruments will be needed.

At the Heimatmuseum, the live Women in Climate podcast event included a great panel featuring Marissa Drew (CSO, Standard Chartered), Rhian-Mari Thomas (CEO, Green Finance Institute), Katherine Garret Cox (CEO, Gulf International Bank Asset Management), Dr Manar AlMoneef (CIO, Neom). There, Marissa from Standard Chartered highlighted how the financial sector is helping move money in the right direction in innovative ways such as debt for nature swaps.

Despite being centred around climate, the topic of nature featured heavily and shows how these two topics are impossible to disconnect from one another. Perhaps then it will be the financial sector (who are clearly moving fastest on nature) identifying risks in their investments and pushing the corporate sector to act quicker in the absence of legislation?

Financial support needed for next steps

A fantastic visit to a nearby forest arranged by carbon credit provider, Tree.ly, was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the event epicentre.

However, the reality of the situation hit home once again as it was stated that it still makes more financial sense to chop forests down than to leave them standing, despite the huge value of ecosystem services they provide.

It will take a reversal of subsidies but the foresters who attended were clear - alternatives to make forest management financially viable would be needed in their place, a message we are very familiar with from our farmer partners in the UK in an agricultural context.

Our challenge for the 21st Century

As part of the event at the Heimatmuseum, we were treated to a tour of the museum by a local couple, where we heard a talk from a local artist and farmer. In Davos it can be easy to be absorbed in the world of suits and ties, but this was a timely reminder that there is a wider world out there that we need to bring along with us.

Business can do a lot to turn things around, but 52% of people in the US still voted for someone who stood for office on a manifesto that openly undermined many of the goals we are trying to tackle.

The Davos couple reminded us of the small town shot to fame in the 1800s as a place people would travel to from all over Europe for treatment of tuberculosis, (many of the sanitoriums are now hotels people stay in). At the time a cure for that devastating disease probably felt like a distant dream but it shows what we can do as a species if we put our minds towards a challenge.

Let’s hope future visitors look back on how, in the 21st century, Davos was a place where we healed the planet.

To conclude, the mood in Davos was slightly different this year, but overall the sense of collaboration from the business community was still there. Climate and nature were very much still on the agenda and with inspirational all-female panels at multiple events, maybe despite the backwards steps from across the pond, the trending direction is still one to feel positive about.