Infrastructure investments: Carbone 4 and its sponsors launch the BIARA framework

In recent years, the issue of biodiversity has gained in importance. We are gradually realizing that the issue is just as important as climate change, and that we urgently need to take action to halt the erosion of life forms, otherwise our societies will be exposed to major risks. Awareness of this issue has grown since the Kunming-Montreal COP15 in December 2022 and the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which defines global objectives for nature conservation. In its wake, several benchmarks designed to provide a framework for business action on biodiversity were published during 2023, including the TNFD and the SBTN. Overall, expectations are growing and becoming more structured, on the part of investors, civil society and regulators alike. Economic players are being urged to adopt a biodiversity strategy commensurate with the issues at stake.

To achieve this, setting up a system for assessing and reporting the impact of infrastructures on biodiversity is an essential first step.
Several tools exist to assess the biodiversity footprint of an economic player, but they are designed more for reporting purposes than for managing the biodiversity issue internally. 

It seems essential to us, and this conviction is shared by our sponsors, to build a standard that can be used to manage a biodiversity strategy, quantify the impact of implementing actions and report transparently to stakeholders, both in the field and in the financial sector.

The ‘biodiversity dashboard’, called BIARA (Biodiversity Impacts Analytics for Real Assets), will be adapted to all types of infrastructure, will meet the requirements of the main reference frameworks, and will be published in open access. This dashboard will be complementary to existing footprint measurement tools, and to pressure indicators designed so that they can be used to calculate footprints. Its ambition is to be the starting point for rigorous consideration of the subject, robust reporting, and the steering of strategies to mitigate the impact on biodiversity.

The initial work will take place in 2024 and will initially focus on solar photovoltaic power plants. This work is possible thanks to the help of our sponsors: Econergy, Engie Green, Rivage Investment and LTIIA, our Observers, SER and Enerplan, and our scientific committee.

► If you would like to take part in this work and understand the BIARA biodiversity scorecard that we are developing for infrastructure, please contact Jean-Yves Wilmotte and Lucile Brand, who oversee the project at Carbone 4.