Erin, welcome.
Thanks for having me, Manveen.
Just give us a sense of what should businesses and
governments be doing to incorporate science-based
targets at the moment?
Well, first off, the most important thing is that they're
taking action now.
There are no-regrets actions that companies and cities can be
taking that are in line with what climate and nature is
needed, and in line with what science says.
What we do at Science Based Targets Network is we provide
companies and cities with the guidance for them to follow,
essentially, an instruction manual for 'how do you
comprehensively assess your impacts across the environment',
and then 'how do you prioritize and go ahead and move on to
setting targets'.
And so just one example of a target that a company might set
is reducing the amount of freshwater quantity in the
products that they source and in their direct operations in line
with what science says is needed in those places.
That's great.
And what was the need for the handbook effectively that people
didn't always know how to begin approaching these targets.
Yeah.
Standardize the process.
It does.
That's the promise and the potential here because and I
used to work with individual companies and coalitions and I
found that strategies and targets were all over the map.
There were lofty, ambitious ones, but that weren't rooted in
practical, 'how much
by when?'
There were incremental ones that, you know, you weren't
sure.
Is this enough?
And so SBTN strives to equip companies to know that they're
taking enough of the right actions, in the right places, at
the right time, to do their part to meet the goals of the Global
Biodiversity Framework on the side of nature, and on the Paris
Agreement on the side of climate.
Which is how the UN Processes have organized these topics. And
tell us about nature-based solutions and the role they'll
be playing.
Well, for those that might have heard the buzzword nature-based
solutions, but not really got their arms around what it
necessarily means.
Imagine if instead of focusing solely on greenhouse gas
emissions, you're looking holistically at the other
aspects of ensuring a healthy planet for people.
Fresh water availability, pollution, land, biodiversity.
If you look at that holistically, it presents a
whole option set that you don't see if you're just looking at
climate.
And so nature-based solutions are a way for companies to both
meet their net-zero targets, as well as to be doing their part
to stop nature loss.
And so if you imagine a company is sourcing in a basin where
water pollution is a big issue, they may be tempted to leave and
move to another location if they're a sustainability leader.
But we don't want that because worse actors may come in. And so
instead, if they look holistically, they see oh, if we
invest in restoration of the ecosystem, it will clean the
water and we will have the benefits of better carbon
capture, cleaner water, a more resilient bottom line, all by
investing in nature-based solutions.
That's so interesting.
So there is sort of a holistic approach to these targets.
What do you think businesses and cities really need to be doing
most urgently?
What do you want them to be adopting right now?
I think most urgently is making sure that climate and nature
don't get lost on the agenda.
I'm glad to see here at Davos that the WEF has 'Climate,
Nature, and Energy' as one of the four main themes because I
think with the geopolitical challenges and so on, there's a
temptation to move away from that.
But the reality is the fundamental health and
well-being of people and planet underpin whether or not the
political headwinds continue,
geopolitical issues, you know. And so don't lose that big
picture perspective and do what you know is the action that you
can take now in order to be future proofing your business,
which is hopefully a combination of true action now, as well as
laying the groundwork for a longer-term transformational
strategy.
You mentioned political headwinds there.
We have seen some governments reversing slightly on their
climate promises.
We've also seen ESG falling out of fashion with some businesses.
Are you still optimistic that we can see the change we need to
happen in the time frame we think we've got?
Yes.
I'm optimistic because I have to be.
I choose to be.
No.
In all seriousness, those headwinds are significant.
I am grateful for those actors that are working on trying to
positively influence them.
How I can positively influence them is by focusing on what is
in my control, which is making sure that what Science Based
Targets Network is offering to the world is part of the
solution. And so I'm excited to see that we had 55 companies
that wanted to be part of our first pilot. We had to cap it
because of capacity.
So we have 17.
But I expect that when we open it up later this year, that will
grow significantly.
So I focus on them, and the impact that they can have, and
how that paves the way longer term. And those are the things
that are in our control, regardless of the way the
politics go.
Well, thanks for bringing us a bit of optimism there.
That's Erin Billman, who's the Executive Director of the
Science Based Targets Network.
And I'm Manveen Rana.