Experts from the World Resources Institute and Climate Policy Radar discuss biodiversity and climate change.
Story by insider@insider.com (Elizabeth Wood ) •

Catherine Boudreau, senior sustainability reporter at Insider; Dr. Susan Chomba, Director of Vital Landscapes at the World Resources Institute; Dr. Michal Nachmany, CEO and Founder of Climate Policy Radar Courtesy of Insider Studios© Courtesy of Insider Studios
Biodiversity loss and human impacts are becoming a key component in climate change conversations.

Experts discuss their views on how biodiversity loss and climate change are also impacting the financial sector.

The conversation was part of Insider's event "For a Better Future: Bridging Culture, Business, and Climate," which took place on Tuesday, April 18, 2023.

Click here to watch a recording of the full event.

1 of 27 Photos in Gallery

©Junior Kannah/AFP/Getty Images

 

Bleak photos show the reality of the cobalt mining industry responsible for the batteries in your phone, computer, and car

 

Cobalt is one of the world's most important natural resources.

 

The Democratic Republic of Congo is estimated to possess 70% of the global supply of cobalt.

 

But terrible working conditions have companies and countries looking at alternatives.

Cobalt is the new blood diamond.

It's highly valuable and dangerous to extract. The Democratic Republic of Congo is responsible for about 70% of the world's supply of Cobalt.

As the world transitions to renewable energies to fight climate change, the demand — and the price — for cobalt, a crucial ingredient used to make lithium batteries, has skyrocketed.

But even as the cost increases, the working conditions of the people mining it can be brutal, and the pay is almost nothing — The Guardian found in an investigation that workers were getting paid about 35 cents an hour.

Here's the reality of where cobalt comes from and how it is mined.

As the symptoms of climate change worsen so too do natural disasters, extreme weather events, and food and water scarcity. Wildlife experts and researchers are pressing for more attention to be paid to how the climate crisis is affecting not only humans but also the alarming loss of biodiversity.

Dr. Susan Chomba, Director of Vital Landscapes at the World Resources Institute spoke with Catherine Boudreau, senior sustainability reporter at Insider, about biodiversity loss in the past decade.

Chomba said, "This is hugely driven by, of course, human factors. Human beings, the way we live, the way we cultivate our food, the way we go ahead with our businesses in different dimensions of our lives."

In the session Together for a Greener Tomorrow part of the "For a Better Future: Bridging Culture, Business, and Climate" Dr. Michal Nachmany, CEO and Founder of Climate Policy Radar echoed Choma's sentiments.

Nachmany said, "I think between the micro and the macro, between the rhinoceros and the fungi, we need to remember that there are critical services that we don't even know how they are interconnected to each other."

Biodiversity's climate change connection

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Chomba said that people often make policy based on a "siloed approach." In terms of climate change she said, "It's really affecting a lot of actors outside the policy environment, like the private sector actors in the energy sector, in the industrial, in the input side on the agriculture side, and of course transport."

Nachmany agreed and added that humans love to think in terms of solutions. Nachmany said, "When it comes to biodiversity it is important to think of needs instead of solutions. If we think about what are human needs: humans need shelter, humansneed food, humans need a temperature range that is livable in. And all of those, the solutions that address both climate change and biodiversity conservation are the same solutions."

Finance and Biodiversity

Nachmany noted that the financial sector is trending towards a better understanding of sustainable investment. She said, "Without a livable planet, no investment is safe. We're seeing movement in very strange places, like large investor coalitions that all of a sudden care about nature positive investments."

Chomba noted that people who can pay are the ones who are benefitting from biodiverse populations. Referring to the Congo Basin she said, "What we are seeing recently, and especially in a country like DRC, is the government last year decided to issue concessions to at least 27 concessions basically for any kind of use. Anybody who is willing to pay for the concessions gets the rights to use these lands."

The Congo is home to critically endangered species and protected indigenous communities. Chomba said, "I think the case of DRC has really tested the global finance mechanisms and the global commitments to protection of biodiversity, to protection of carbon that is already in these ecosystems and to the protection of indigenous people."

Catherine Boudreau:

really glad that you mentioned finance because what I've been thinking about a lot is how as a society we don't really put a price on nature, even though it does have so much value to communities, to businesses, to governments. So as a result, there aren't always the best financial incentives to protect it when maybe there's more money to be made in other industries, whether it's oil or timber.

Nature adds value to communities, businesses, and goverenments society doesn't necessarily put a price on nature. As an outcome governments can't find the best financial incentives to protect nature. Nachmany said, "Financial mechanisms and financial instruments are also a mechanism to ensure that polluting activities and damaging and destructive activities are capped and banned. So you asked if we can put a price on nature, and the question is, can we put a price on destroying nature?"

Biodiversity and vulnerable populations

Nachmany posited that the most vulnerable populations impacted by climate change are often the least likely contributors to the problem. He said, "We have vulnerable communities all over the world, but we see the people who are the strongest but also the ones impacted the most by climate change and biodiversity loss also the ones who have contributed the least towards creating it."

On how to tackle biodiversity and the harm to vulnerable populations Chomba said, "The problem is, we don't have strong governance to access that that decentralized power and authority and decision making to these communities more. We still tend to have a lot of centralized regime in terms of how we manage our biodiversity, and that's a key issue."