Businesses call for nature impact disclosures to be mandatory by 2030 | Biodiversity

More than 300 businesses, including H&M, Sainsbury’s and Nestlé, have urged world leaders to make it mandatory for companies to assess and reveal their impact on nature by 2030.

Businesses and financial institutions in 56 countries – including the UK, Canada and China – are pushing for governments to agree to the disclosures at Cop15, the UN biodiversity conference being held in Montreal this December.

In an open letter to heads of state, business leaders said the business and financial status quo was “economically shortsighted and will destroy value over the long term”.

If agreed, the pledge would apply to all large companies across the 196 countries signed up to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the global agreement on protecting nature. It follows increases in the number of companies making pledges to reduce emissions, with climate disclosures now mandatory in the UK, France and New Zealand, and pressure mounting for other countries to take action.

The firms, which have combined revenues of more than $1.5tn (£1.3tn) and also include BNP Paribas, Aviva Investors, Salesforce, Tata Steel and Unilever, have agreed to assess their impacts on nature, disclose that information and publicly commit to reducing their negative effects. If parties don’t agree to make these disclosures mandatory, they will be voluntary.

Various tools are being developed to measure companies’ impacts on nature but the methodologies must be standardized and supported by science, the group says.

The open letter was released alongside a report published by Business for Nature, the Capitals Coalition,

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YouTube shrinking ad business is an ominous sign for online ad market

A YouTube logo seen at the YouTube Space LA in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles, California, United States October 21, 2015.

Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

The online advertising market continues to suffer, as heavyweights Alphabet and Microsoft reported disappointing sales during their most recent quarters.

YouTube advertising revenue dropped 2% year over year to $7.07 billion during the Google parent’s third quarter, missing analysts’ estimates of $7.42 billion. It was the first time YouTube’s ad revenue shrank on a year-over-year basis since the company started breaking out the division’s results in 2019.

Alphabet’s overall revenue growth drastically declined from 41% a year ago to 6%, underscoring how fears of a looming recession have caused companies to cut back on their advertising and marketing campaigns. Indeed, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said during a call with analysts that YouTube’s revenue decline “primarily reflects further pullbacks in advertiser spends.”

Some of the advertisers that slowed their online advertising spending with Alphabet come from the financial services, insurance, loans and mortgage and crypto industries, said Alphabet chief business officer Philipp Schindler.

Last week, Snap set the tone for the online advertising market when it missed third-quarter analyst estimates with $1.13 billion in sales, sending its shares tumbling more than over 30% the next day. Snap attributed its poor sales to companies decreasing their marketing budgets” in response to the weak economy, the company said in a letter to investors.

Microsoft also reported a slowdown in its online advertising business.

Its search and

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Google’s core business is slowing down amid recession fears


New York
CNN Business

Google may be the giant in the digital advertising world, but even it is not immune to the impact that the economic downturn and recession fears are having on the online ad market.

Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) on Tuesday reported earnings results for the third quarter that fell short of Wall Street analysts’ estimates for both sales and profits, due in large part to a sharp slowdown in the growth of its core advertising business.

It reported revenue of nearly $69.1 billion, up just 6% from the same period in the prior year. Google’s advertising revenues grew just 2.5% year-over-year, compared to the 43% growth it posted a year ago. YouTube’s ad business, which competes with TikTok, was especially a hard hit, with revenue declining nearly 2% from the year-ago quarter.

Google’s net income, henceforth, came in at $13.9 billion, down more than 26% from the year prior and well below the $16.6 billion analysts had projected.

The company’s shares fell 6% in after-hours trading Tuesday following the report.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, nodded to the tougher economic climate in a statement included with the results.

“We’re sharpening our focus on a clear set of product and business priorities,” Pichai said. “We are focused on both investing responsibly for the long term and being responsive to the economic environment.”

Tech companies, including Google, reported that they’d started to feel the impact of declining online ad spending in the prior quarter. High

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