Last updated: 09/12/2021

EU Business @ Biodiversity Platform

The EU Business @ Biodiversity Platform provides a unique forum for dialogue and policy interface to discuss the links between business and biodiversity at EU level, with the aim to work with and help businesses integrate natural capital and biodiversity considerations into business practices.

The EU Business @ Biodiversity Platform was set up by the European Commission.

European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment

The European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment (EPLCA) brings together the EU’s knowledge base to respond to business and policy needs for progressing towards sustainable production and consumption. The EPLCA supports the methodological development of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the analysis of supply chains and end-of-life waste management.  

The EPLCA is an initiative of the European Commission.

Fern - Free trade agreements

This website presents the work of the Fern organisation regarding the development of an inclusive, transparent approach to negotiating EU trade agreements, aligned with EU commitments to protect forests.

Fern is partly funded by the European Union through the LIFE programme.

Trade Hub

Trade Hub is a five-year project aiming to make trade sustainable for people and the planet by studying all stages of various supply chains, revealing damaging links and potential ways to make lasting change.

Trade Hub is independent from any EU institution but has collaborated with the European Commission through the EU Business @ Biodiversity Platform for the writing of the report Measuring the impact of agricultural supply chains on biodiversity. A corporate needs assessment.

Trase

Trase is a data-driven transparency initiative that aims to revolutionise our understanding of the trade and financing of commodities driving deforestation worldwide. Its unique supply chain mapping approach brings together disparate, publicly available data to connect consumer markets to deforestation and other impacts on the ground. Trase’s freely available online tools and actionable intelligence aims to enable companies, financial institutions, governments and civil society organisations to take practical steps to address deforestation.

Trase is partly funded by the European Commission.

BioTrade

BioTrade is an initiative launched by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1996 to support the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity by ensuring that products or services sourced from biodiversity are commercialised and traded in a way that respects people and nature. It has developed a set of guidelines for businesses, governments and civil society wishing to support the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as the fair and equitable sharing of benefits through trade. The initiative is implemented by partners and practitioners in over 80 countries.  

The EU is a funding partner for some projects under the BioTrade initiative.

Capitals Coalition

The Capitals Coalition is a global collaboration aiming to redefine value for transforming decision-making: its ambition is for the value of all types of capital, including natural, social and human capital, to be included in decision-making. It has developed the Natural Capital Protocol, a decision-making framework to enable organisations to identify, measure and value their direct and indirect impacts and dependencies on natural capital.

The European Commission is one of the 380 organisations that have joined the Coalition.

UNEP Environment and Trade Hub

Launched in 2015, the Environment and Trade Hub provides tailored support to countries seeking to leverage trade and investment as vehicles for achieving the sustainable developments goals (SDGs) and their Paris Agreement commitments. It has four focus areas: trade in Environmentally Sound Technologies, Governance at Trade & Environment Nexus, Green Markets & Global Value Chains, and Reducing the Footprint of Trade and Greening the Brown.

The EU is a funding partner for some activities under the UNEP Environment and Trade Hub.