GRI at COP17: joining forces to advance corporate action for nature
Published date: 15 October 2026
Discover our events and engagements at Biodiversity COP17 in Armenia
From 19 to 30 October, Yerevan will host the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17), bringing together governments, international organizations, civil society, communities and the private sector under the theme ‘Taking action for nature’.
COP17 comes at a pivotal moment for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). For the first time since its adoption in 2022, countries will jointly assess progress toward its 23 targets, including Target 15, which calls for measures to encourage and enable companies and financial institutions to monitor, assess and disclose their biodiversity-related risks, dependencies and impacts.
GRI 101: Biodiversity is the global standard for organizations to disclose their nature-related impacts. Together with nature-related financial disclosure, impact reporting can help organizations make informed decisions, strengthen accountability and support implementation of Target 15. At COP17, GRI’s focus will be on the enabling role of sustainability reporting in evidencing GBF progress, and encouraging multi-stakeholder collaboration to achieve action and change.
GRI’s delegation at COP17 will be led by Susanne Stormer, (Chair of the Global Sustainability Standards Board) alongside Harold Pauwels (Director of Standards) and Élodie Chêne (GRI Biodiversity Lead).
As GBF Target 15 makes clear, we need to demonstrate progress towards the goals of this global agreement, and to do so it's essential that companies report their impacts, dependencies and risks related to biodiversity. Here, the GRI Standards, as the established foundation for disclosing nature-related impacts, have a key part to play. In Yerevan, the GRI team and I will be engaging with companies, partners, governments and other stakeholders to illuminate the connections between corporate transparency and the solutions that we must reach to halt and reverse biodiversity loss
Susanne Stormer, Chair of the Global Sustainability Standards BoardKey GRI events and speaking engagements in Yerevan include:
- From commitments to action: Business and the Rio Convention synergies (22 October, 15:30): GRI and CEBDS host a session on how global alignment on nature can strengthen policy coherence and business action.
- Understanding nature-related ‘dependencies’ and their role in mainstream corporate assessment and reporting (24 October, 10:00): GRI, TNFD, PRI and Ceres co-host an event on how to reflect nature-related dependencies in the global reporting system, to strengthen business resilience and decision-making.
- From Nature Risk to Corporate Strategy (25 October, 11:10): Harold Pauwels moderates a UN CBD hosted session, on turning nature-related disclosures into strategy and operational change.
- The interoperability of standards, measurement and guidance frameworks for nature-positive outcomes (25 October, 16:30): Susanne Stormer join an NPI panel, on collaboration to embed the new State of Nature Indicators and Metrics.
- From Disclosure to Decision: Board Oversight of Nature and Sustainability Information (27 October, 11:00): Susanne Stormer and the ISSB’s Sue Lloyd hold a fireside chat with UN-SSE, on the strategic relevance of corporate data covering both nature-related impacts and risks.
- From corporate disclosure to national action: Implementing GBF Target 15 in Brazil and beyond (27 October, 17:00): GRI and CEBDS host an event on the enabling role of biodiversity reporting data in evidencing GBF progress.
Join us in Yerevan for these conversations on nature-related reporting, and access our events calendar for all GRI COP17 engagements.