Review and recommendations for mainstreaming of biodiversity in EU policy

• Gabrielle Aubert, IEEP
• Nora Hiller, IEEP

The purpose of the report is to identify policy opportunities for the CircHive project to influence and help develop policy and legislation that determine how and why companies measure and report their impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities in relation to biodiversity and ecosystem services.

This report is the first draft of a living document that will be updated throughout the CircHive project timeline (from 1.12.2022-30.11.2027). The purpose of the report is to identify policy opportunities for the CircHive project to influence and help develop policy and legislation that determine how and why companies measure and report their impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities in relation to biodiversity and ecosystem services. The report reviews existing and upcoming EU policies and legislation related to biodiversity footprinting (BF), NCA, sustainability reporting, and sustainable finance to identify areas for improvement and opportunities for policy innovation. Over the course of the CircHive project, based on other WPs and their work, the living review approach will strengthen the analysis by adding policies as relevant and building detail.

This draft report and policy analysis is meant for internal use within the CircHive project – to inform other WPs and to plan WP3 engagement with policy and the project partners. This can be done mainly through the project’s case studies, and later on in the project the formulation of best practices for companies and cities on how to report on biodiversity impacts through EU legislation requirements. This draft report is complementary to the report of Task 3.1, which compares the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) for biodiversity with international voluntary standards (CircHive WP3 Deliverable 3.1.1). The European Standards fall under the new European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

This first draft report scopes the role of public policy and the links between EU environmental policies and BF/NCA for internal use within the project across WPs (Section 2). This analysis will be the basis for CircHive’s policy engagement including the formulation of best practices and policy recommendations, which will be addressed in the final version of the report (Section 3). The final report will be also used as a basis to disseminate the results of the policy analysis, as well as best practices and recommendations (Section 4).

• IEEP
• LUKE
• denkstatt
• EFI
• The Biodiversity Footprint Company
• University of Edinburgh
• EcoAct
• Bodensee Stiftung