UNPRI Stewardship Initiative for Nature
This article introduces Spring, the UNPRI Stewardship Initiative for Nature.
Spring was founded on June 26, 2024, with the aim of helping signatories manage natural related risks and opportunities. The UNPRI has over 5300 signatories and manages assets worth over $120 trillion. UNPRI has previously maintained close contact with the Investor Initiative for Sustainable Forests and the Investor Working Group on Sustainable Palm Oil.
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Key Focus Areas of Spring
Spring is a natural stewardship initiative, with its first focus area being forest loss and land degradation. Forest loss and land degradation are direct factors of biodiversity loss and climate crisis, posing risks to business operations and supply chains, as well as financial risks to investors. These risks include:
- Physical risks: changes in rainfall patterns, loss of production land, and impacts of floods on business operations.
- Transition risk: Policy shifts in jurisdictions leading to stranded assets and changes in consumer demand. For example, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products.
The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment believes that voluntary actions by businesses have very limited impact on deforestation and land degradation, and investors need to influence business decisions and promote sustainable production models through engagement. In addition, Spring will also consider seeking positive impact through strategies, risk management, internal practices, and supply chain management. In the medium to long term, Spring will focus on biodiversity issues in the marine and freshwater fields.
Engagement and Stewardship under Spring
Investors can join Spring in two ways, the first being an endorser, which is a signatory that publicly supports Spring. The second type is the participant, which refers to investors who have direct contact with the company. The participants include lead investors and cooperative investors, with the former focusing on connecting with the enterprise and the latter actively supporting the interaction between lead investors and the enterprise. The active engagement of the first batch of participants have started in the third quarter of 2024.
Spring will establish a participation group for each enterprise, consisting of lead investors and cooperative investors. Investors can carry out activities based on their own strategies, principles, and guidance plans, and Spring does not set specific engagement methods.
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