An evaluation of tools being promoted to help the private sector disclose its impacts on biodiversity

Abstract Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) encourages the private sector to measure its risks, dependencies, and impacts on biodiversity. Various disclosure and action frameworks are being developed to help companies do this, two of which (Task Force for Nature‐related Financial Disclosures & Science Based Targets for Nature) publish lists of tools that can help make these assessments. Here we provide an analysis of 129 tools listed on one or both sites classifying tool type and assessing the ways in which they measure biodiversity. Many of the tools included methods/approaches, single GIS layers or consultancy companies offering bespoke analyses. Only 58 tools (45% of all tools) were classified as a database or software tool that would allow standardized outputs to queries. Only 36 (28%) of the listed tools contained ecosystem (31) or species data (18) with global coverage, and only 13 (10%) tools used data on individual species to enable risk to be assessed at a species level. Most of the 13 tools that could provide information on species used data from either the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool or the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. The utility of tools in supporting disclosure and action frameworks, and achievement of KMGBF goals, would be improved with an independent classification of applicability, transparency about underlying datasets, improved integration of global ecosystems and species data, sustainable financing to generate and maintain high‐quality biodiversity data, and corporate follow‐through from disclosure to robust action.