Published • Inter IKEA newsroom
IKEA joins Stockholm+50 to highlight the role of business in protecting biodiversity
This week, Inter IKEA Group joins the Stockholm+50 conference. Its aim is to foster dialogue around the important role the private sector can play in protecting and improving biodiversity by bringing together around 30 businesses in an event co-hosted with WWF and H&M.
Stockholm+50 and surrounding events takes place 2 and 3 June in Stockholm, Sweden. Inter IKEA Group will be present to engage in conversations around sustainable living, circular economy, sustainable food systems, responsible forest management and biodiversity.
In the run up to the event, Inter IKEA Group will join forces with WWF and H&M to organise a half day event convening around 40 businesses, to share challenges, opportunities and learnings around their work to implement biodiversity objectives as part of their overall sustainability strategy and business operations. The awareness and movement to halt biodiversity loss is rising quickly up the agenda among decision makers, companies and people around the world.
IKEA was an early supporter of global efforts to reverse biodiversity loss this decade. “IKEA is dependent on biodiversity for the success of our business, now and in the future, and we have already experienced business implications influenced by biodiversity loss. We also recognise that nature is a key ally in our fight against climate change, and it is our duty to current and future generations to regenerate resources, protect ecosystems and improve biodiversity whilst securing livelihoods for many. It’s a complex challenge and there has never been a more important time to come together and work collaboratively with others,” says Christina Niemelä Ström, Sustainability Manager IKEA Supply.
The discussions will centre around the key actions that businesses are already taking, ways to collaborate and also challenges to overcome, such as integrating biodiversity and climate actions within large global supply chains. It will also focus on the need for an ambitious UN Global Biodiversity Framework – effectively a ‘Paris Agreement for nature’ - which is currently under negotiation.
The Stockholm+50 conference aims to act as a springboard to accelerate the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including the Paris Agreement on climate change, the post-2020 global Biodiversity Framework, and the adoption of green post-COVID-19 recovery plans. It’s a milestone on the way to COP15, an important UN biodiversity conference to be held in autumn, as well as COP27, the next UN climate conference to be held in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt in November.
Representatives from the UN, governments, civil society, and business are coming together at Stockholmsmässan to commemorate the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and celebrate 50 years of global environmental action.
“Businesses are taking action on biodiversity based on the understanding of the risks of inaction and also the opportunities around nature action. Restoring nature could create business opportunities and 395 million jobs by 2030, and securing a nature-positive world will deliver a safe and sustainable future for our economies and our societies”, says Marco Lambertini, Director General WWF international.