Undercurrents: October 2024

SeaGen's roundup of company news and perspective on all things climate.

Blythe Taylor, Chief of Staff

Two years ago the UN’s Biodiversity Conference, COP15, concluded with a landmark agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet’s lands, coastal areas and inland waters by the end of the decade. This month’s COP16 in Cali, Colombia has highlighted just how far off we are from achieving the ‘30 by 30’ target.

While our changing climate has led to an increasing number of extreme ‘once in a generation’ weather events, biodiversity loss is no less catastrophic, yet less instantly obvious. “Nature is life, and yet we are waging a war against it, a war where there can be no winner,” UN Secretary General Guterres stated this week. “Every day, we lose more species. Every minute, we dump a garbage truck of plastic waste into our oceans, rivers and lakes. This is what an existential crisis looks like.”

The UK actually has some of the most ambitious targets on biodiversity conservation, with England’s Net Gain legislation that came into effect in February of this year. Developers must deliver a BNG of 10%, ensuring that habitats for wildlife are left in a measurably better state than they were before the development. Marine net gain is set to follow, but poses significant challenges in terms of enforcement.

As we have discussed in previous editions of Undercurrents there is a dearth of ocean data. Achieving a baseline understanding from which to measure change is therefore extremely challenging. Current solutions to marine biodiversity surveys are manual - which in turn means expensive and risky. It’s why our focus at SeaGen is on low cost, automated, sustainable monitoring solutions that can provide much needed insight into our waterways and oceans.

Monitoring, and subsequent reporting and verification, is going to be pivotal to the success of the ‘30 by 30’ target. During COP the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity credits launched its framework for high integrity biodiversity credit markets. A biodiversity credit is “a certificate that represents a measured and evidence‐based unit of positive biodiversity outcome that is durable and additional to what would have otherwise occurred”.

It’s a positive step forward that involves the private sector and could go some way to closing the finance gap. However, we’ve witnessed the mess and controversy of the voluntary carbon markets, where credits can be purchased to offset a company’s emissions, but in some cases lack transparency, with limited monitoring and no genuine additionality. It’s imperative we learn these lessons and don’t make the same mistakes again. Biodiversity credits need to be science led with a verifiable positive impact.

But the truth is, even a well regulated biodiversity credit market is only going to scratch the surface of the problem. The private sector needs to recognise how integral nature is to business. Whether we’re thinking about manufacturing processes or inputs, supply chains are jeopardised when we lose nature. In fact 55% of the world’s GDP is exposed to material nature risk. In essence, we all need to change the way we think and talk about nature, and recognise it not just as a business resource, but as the very infrastructure of our economy. It’s a concept that has gained traction during investment sessions at COP16, and may help reframe how investors assess risk. But as Colombian president Gustavo Petro said, “the world cannot wait for it to be profitable to save nature.”

Progress and Press

Cultivation System Testing

It’s been a busy time in the SeaGen workshop with our automated seaweed cultivation rig ready for a full system test. Isn’t she a beauty!