Given the current scale and pace of nature loss (IPBES 2019), concerted action across society is needed to shift from practices with negative outcomes for nature towards those that have positive outcomes for nature. For this to happen, organisations (including businesses and financial institutions) need to assess, disclose and report on their nature-related impacts and dependencies. Not only do organisations directly or indirectly impact nature (e.g. deforestation to provide arable lands), they also depend on nature either directly or through their supply chains (e.g. pollination is essential to growth of many crops like apples). Precise assessment and disclosure of impacts and dependencies is important to enable implementation of actions to minimise nature-related risks, and to create new nature-related opportunities.

This report aims to assist financial institutions with developing a sectoral focus towards assessing nature-related risks and guide the development of potential tools and data collection methodologies. It focuses on high-dependency and high-impact sectors as priorities for initial action, providing an overview of the main dependencies and impacts for 10 high-risk sectors (adapted from the Global Industry Classification Standard, GICS) as detailed in Table 1. This can be used by FIs wishing to embark on the journey of assessing, measuring, and reporting on their nature-related risks. The list of priority sectors is based on a review of previous analyses and resources that identified nature-related risks at a sectoral level (sources provided in the Context section).