• Production of 75% of crops is at stake, impacting the global food supply chains and trade.
• RLAM encourages businesses worldwide to prioritise biodiversity targets through its programmes alongside their climate goals.
• The aim is to support a healthy planet and protect investors' interests.

In an effort to preserve nature and biodiversity, as well as to highlight the larger role they play in human and other forms of life, Royal London Asset Management, an investment management company, has launched two new biodiversity engagement programmes.

Much to humankind's chagrin, biodiversity has been declining at an alarming rate, with around 1 million species of plants and animals already on the verge of extinction. If large-scale destruction continues, all forms of life will be threatened, affecting food security, health, and livelihoods—and having a particularly huge bearing on marginalised communities.

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What is RLAM Doing?

Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) is responding to this loss by introducing biodiversity engagement efforts: 1) integrating biodiversity into how it engages with the companies it invests in and 2) launching two biodiversity programmes.

As regards programmes, the first focuses on the connection between climate and nature and on understanding how damage to one affects the other; the second promotes nature conservation with a focus on fairness and inclusivity.

RLAM is also an active member of Nature Action 100, a global initiative in which companies disclose their environmental impact and take action to protect nature and biodiversity, with a special focus on high-impact sectors such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food, forestry, packaging, and mining.

Why is RLAM doing this?

Risks are Myriad

A whopping $44 trillion—around 55% of the world’s GDP—depends on nature, including industries such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and tourism. In fact, 75% of crops rely on pollinators like bees. If pollinators vanish, many poorer countries would suffer major losses, impacting global food supply and trade.

Despite the stark reality, only a few companies have set targets to protect biodiversity. While the majority of them have climate targets in place, only about 5% have biodiversity targets. Hence, not only does it expose investors to unaddressed risks, but it also hinders immediate actions and efforts to conserve nature.

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So, businesses, governments, and, to a great extent, the public should work in conjunction to reinvigorate nature and biodiversity, and embed the concept of sustainability in all the nooks and crannies of the global economy, as this is the last recourse in a world so deeply damaged by anthropogenic activities.

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Source: RLAM