Today 29 July 2021 , is Earth Overshoot Day and marks the date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year, meaning we’re living on ecological credit.

To mark this sobering moment, We Mean Business and Business for Nature have launched a new publication ‘Building Integrated Policies for the Planet’ outlining the integrated policy recommendations to address the twin crises of climate change and nature loss.

Addressing nature and climate together is an imperative to build an equitable, nature-positive and net-zero future. We cannot contain global warming to 1.5°C without addressing nature loss, and we cannot reverse the loss of nature without a stable climate. A recent report authored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) supported by 50 of the world’s leading scientists, outlined this interconnection and identified actions to simultaneously fight the climate and nature crises. Businesses are starting to take a more integrated approach, but to accelerate action, coherence and aligned policies on nature and climate are needed.

Many businesses are already calling for change and demanding this transformation. Through the We Mean Business and Business for Nature coalitions and their partners, businesses are urging governments to adopt policies that transform our economic and financial systems in a way that places nature and climate at the heart of global decision-making. Since the onset of COVID-19, more than 1200 major global companies have also called on governments to invest in climate action and build back better through a series of high-profile letters and direct advocacy. To create a positive business-policy feedback-loop, governments must adopt, implement and enforce policies beneficial for nature, people and climate to ensure a holistic approach and support accelerated business action to achieve the SDGs by 2030. We Mean Business and Business for Nature call on governments to:

Make sure interlinked goals and targets are clear, and backed up with clear timelines. For example, a global goal to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 will give business the confidence to act and invest in changing and adapting their business models.

Strengthen disclosure rules in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations and upcoming Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Transparency is the only way investors and consumers can effectively distinguish those companies who are doing the right thing, not greenwashing.

Remove environmentally harmful subsidies and perverse incentives that encourage high-impact sectors and companies to keep polluting the atmosphere and destroying nature. Such subsidies need to be redirected towards sustainable activities delivering long-term outcomes for the planet and societies.

Make ambitious climate and nature action core to a sustainable economic recovery. Public finance must be aligned with sustainability priorities with clear policies that catalyze private sector investment. While National Resilience and Recovery Plans in the European Union are delivering on climate, they are unfortunately woefully inadequate in leading a nature-positive recovery.

Align the separate conventions on climate, biological diversity and desertification. This will simplify the agenda in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, bring to light opportunities for overlapping solutions and provide business with certainty to scale up private-sector action that benefits both climate and nature.