Advancing protection of the natural environment
International Mother Earth Day is a call for global environmental action and a reminder of the need to live in harmony with nature in order for people and planet to prosper.
This is the first Mother Earth Day to be celebrated within the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and to mark the occasion, Ipieca reflects on how the oil and gas industry is working together to support biological diversity and contribute to global and local conservation goals.
Collaboration is key
Collaboration is at the heart of what Ipieca does. Ipieca convenes a significant portion of the oil and gas industry with key partners and cross sector initiatives such as UNEP, UNEP WCMC, CSBI, TNFD and IUCN (with whom we recently signed a memorandum of understanding) to share knowledge on emerging environmental issues and work on good practice guidance and tools.
For almost 20 years, Ipieca and IOGP have been jointly working to support companies to integrate the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) across the life cycle of oil and gas operations and embed the concept of BES management and the mitigation hierarchy within operational practices and management systems.
Supporting a global biodiversity framework
Ipieca attended preparatory meetings of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP CBD), making interventions on behalf of the Ipieca membership regarding the draft post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF) to help ensure it is as SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) as possible.
We are actively engaging with members, partners and the CBD Secretariat to prepare good practice and tools which will enable oil, gas and alternative energy companies to operationalize the GBF as soon as it is launched at CBD COP15 later this year.
Accelerating action on the SDGs
Nature and ecosystems provide the foundation for economic growth, human health and prosperity. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet and the people living on it.
The Ipieca-WBCSD SDG Roadmap for the oil and gas sector recognizes this interdependence, identifying over 90 transformative actions across three systemic themes of climate, people and nature to accelerate the realization of the SDGs. The nature section highlights how the oil and gas industry can embed circularity, natural capital and nature positive concepts into operations to conserve and restore biodiversity, promoting a healthier planet.
Ipieca and its members are fully committed to prioritizing BES throughout oil, gas and alternative energy activities and work with all parts of society to make positive contributions to global and local conservation goals.