IPBES 2026: towards global nature accounting — IRICE and Effinature already ahead

Introduction

In February 2026, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will publish, in Manchester, its first global report on business and biodiversity. This document, produced by 80 experts from 35 countries, will define the basis for an economic assessment of human activities' dependencies on, and impacts on, nature. For IRICE, this announcement confirms what we already practise: a scientific, measurable and independent approach to ecological performance.

The global economy depends on nature

According to IPBES, more than half of global GDP rests directly on the services provided by ecosystems. Yet this dependence remains largely under-valued in economic decisions. The report will establish three fundamental typologies:

• businesses' dependencies on natural resources,
• the consequences of their activities on biodiversity,
• and the measurement and action mechanisms to correct these effects.

This structure prefigures a genuine global ecological accounting, in which every economic actor will have to account for its footprint and its net contribution to nature.

From scientific analysis to verifiable action

IRICE, as a certification body accredited to ISO/IEC 17065, has structured its Effinature and BPS standards along this same logic: measuring ecological dependencies and pressures on habitats; assessing functional and cohabitation dynamics; and producing verifiable evidence, integrated into an overall performance score.

This scientific methodology anticipates the IPBES call for evidence-based tools capable of informing financial, regulatory and territorial choices. Where many approaches are limited to awareness, IRICE establishes ecological traceability at the same level of rigour as energy or carbon traceability.

A natural alignment with the international framework

The six chapters of the forthcoming IPBES report find a direct echo in the Effinature structures:

Thus Effinature does not position itself as a competitor of a global framework, but as an operational instrument already aligned with its future architecture.

Ecological data, the company's new capital

The IPBES report heralds a profound transformation: biodiversity becomes a parameter of economic risk management. For investors, property companies and developers, mastering these dependencies will tomorrow condition access to sustainable financing. By making ecological performance measurable, IRICE and Effinature create the bridge between science, standards and economic value. This ability to certify ecological evidence makes IRICE a structuring player in the convergence between finance, development and nature.

Conclusion

IPBES 2026 will mark a historic step: nature officially enters the global accounting language. IRICE and Effinature already embody its concrete application. The question is no longer whether companies should integrate biodiversity into their decisions, but how they will do so.

Operational translation for real estate stakeholders

IPBES sets a global scientific framework. In a real estate project, this logic implies three requirements: measuring the site's ecological dependencies, assessing the pressures generated by the project, and translating performance into comparable, verifiable indicators.

Without a structured method, biodiversity remains declarative. With a quantified, traceable assessment tool, it becomes steerable and enforceable. It is at this level that the operational transformation takes place.

An ecological-accounting logic requires measurable indicators, a transparent aggregation method, and an independent verification mechanism. A structured biodiversity score makes it possible to objectify this performance at the scale of a project.