- Businesses should step up where governments fall short and drive progress towards climate, biodiversity, and sustainability goals.
- Companies like Huawei and Dahua Technology prove that the journey to sustainability can also unlock long-term value.
- While the responsibility doesn’t solely lie with corporations or emerging technologies, they must take a pivotal role in helping meet global sustainability targets.
In January we saw the beginning of Trump’s second term, sparking concerns among experts about significant setbacks for environmental policy. His administration has already announced plans to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement and is even considering an exit from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
There is a sense of uncertainty worldwide with this new precedent, but if one thing is clear is that the climate crisis is not going anywhere. If anything, it’s accelerating, and the stakes have never been higher.
Crucially, the pressure is now on businesses to lead where governments falter.
In October 2024, the UN’s Biodiversity Conference, COP16, brought together more than 3,000 companies and investors in Cali, Colombia to tackle the issue of biodiversity loss.
This summit marked a shift. Corporate engagement had surged, with three times as many businesses present when compared to COP15 in 2022. This generated a newfound energy with a real commitment to building a nature-positive economy. Boardrooms that once viewed biodiversity as a side issue were now treating it as a priority.
But beneath the optimism lay a pressing challenge: translating ambition into action at the scale the planet demands.
Corporate social responsibility specialists have long argued that businesses should care about biodiversity loss because the economy is embedded in and depends on nature.
As an example, in a review commissioned by the UK Treasury, economist Sir Partha Dasgupta highlighted that diverse ecosystems make economies inherently more stable, and the loss of biodiversity leads to heightened volatility and uncertainty.
Indeed, PwC research shows that 55% of global GDP, is moderately or highly dependent on nature while the World Economic Forum claims that investing in a nature-positive economy could lead to approximately $10.1 trillion of commercial deals.
While many are still cautious about the financial benefits of tackling environmental degradation as a company, a growing number of them are proving that the path to sustainability can be both a moral obligation and a strong business opportunity.
As an example, Huawei launched a Tech4Nature project, in collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Its aim is to protect the Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Park by using cutting-edge technologies like underwater cameras, photogrammetry, and AI-powered audio monitoring to offer insights into the health of coral reefs and marine life.
This goes beyond being a simple conservation effort and is instead a sophisticated integration of tech innovation and environmental consciousness that is setting a new standard for how businesses can actively protect biodiversity.
In a similar manner, Dahua Technology has recently entered a new partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The collaboration will focus on wetland restoration, biodiversity monitoring, and innovative eco-technologies as well as explore ways to expand public engagement through joint educational initiatives and community-driven conservation campaigns.
Dahua is well versed in environmental conservation. The company has a strong track record of leveraging its technology to monitor some of the world’s most endangered species by providing data insights that help their conservation. These have in the past included the Hainan gibbon or the giant panda.
None of this means that new technologies alone will solve the challenge ahead. But the task is urgent.
Global wildlife populations have shrunk by an average of nearly 75 per cent over the past 50 years and approximately 1 million animals and plant species are in danger of extinction.
Putting a stop to this trend is essential and requires bold action – action that must come not only from governments but from businesses that hold the power to shape our global economy.
