Conservation of biodiversity

The research undertaken by Mexican ecologists Gerardo Ceballos (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and Rodolfo Dirzo (Stanford University) in Latin America and Africa has shown that the current species extinction rates in many groups of organisms are much higher than throughout the preceding two million years, according to the committee of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology.

BBVA in Colombia has reached an agreement with Isagen to convert long-term finance of 368 billion pesos to sustainable loans linked to compliance with an environmental indicator. The index measures carbon emissions intensity in relation to energy generation as part of a pledge made by the power generation company to help preserve a more sustainable world.

The protection of nature and its sustainable management is a matter of the very survival of the planet. Moreover, a growing number of financial institutions are becoming aware that this field offers a real opportunity. The deployment of long-term strategies, the role of investors and shareholders, and increasingly stringent regulation paint a brighter picture.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology has gone in this fourteenth edition to the ecologists Lenore Fahrig, Simon Levin and Steward Pickett for incorporating the spatial dimension into ecosystem research.The three award winners have made fundamental contributions both to the development of the theory and mathematics of spatial ecology, and to its application to the design of nature reserve areas, wildlife management plans, as well as road networks and sustainable cities, according to the jury.

Of 8,300 known animal species, 8% are extinct and 22% are endangered. These United Nations figures place the planet on the brink of what some scientists now call "the sixth mass extinction." The impact of human action on ecosystems is causing many species to disappear, with irreversible harm to biodiversity and the environment.

Subscribe to our weekly sustainability newsletter!

In the past five years, the social call to action to build a more sustainable world has spread at great speed, according to the BBVA Research report ‘Sustainability through the Lens of Big Data’. The study underscores that while climate change is still leading the conversation, biodiversity is emerging as the concept with the greatest growth —especially in Latin America— and it is expected to be one of the pillars that will mark the sustainability debate in the short and medium term.

In many ways, the coronavirus crisis marks a turning point in human behavior. One of the lessons this pandemic is teaching us is the essential need to change the way we interact with nature. “We will open the door to new pandemics if we continue maintaining a toxic relationship with nature,” states the ecologist Pedro Jordano. For the secretary of the jury for the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge in Ecology and Conservation Biology, biodiversity “works like a shock absorber”. If it is altered, “it leads to all kinds of problems,” like the spread of COVID-19.

The impact of human action on biodiversity is a challez nge that remains unresolved. Numerous scientific studies confirm that these changes are causing the extinction of more and more species - the consequences of which are at least as severe as climate change. The work of civil society organization is essential to combat this phenomenon. This year, the BBVA Foundation once again sought to recognize the work of some of these organizations with its Biodiversity Conservation Awards.

BBVA today announced its strategy around climate change and sustainable development, Pledge 2025. The strategy will help the bank meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Pledge 2025 will help the bank align its activity to a 2ºC Scenario and strike a balance between sustainable energy and fossil fuel investments and is based on three lines of action: financing, management and engagement.

Rosemary and Peter Grant have devoted 40 years of their lives to studying the finches of the Galapagos Archipelago, the birds that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution. The couple´s work has allowed them to prove that evolution can take place at a much faster pace than previously believed; in less than a decade, the beaks and bodies of these birds can transform to adapt to environmental changes.

Europe’s banks want an active role for the financial sector in the fight against climate change. They are asking Brussels to draw up an urgent plan based on the recommendations of the European Union’s High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance.

ShareAction, one of the most important observers of responsible investing, has published a study on the 15 biggest European banks, analyzing how we manage the risks and opportunities related to climate change. This study follows the guide for investors on discussing climate change with their bank that was published a few months ago.

Big Data can play an important role in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which the international community hopes to do by the year 2030. However, to reach this objective, more information and more public-private cooperation is needed.

The Conference on the United Nations Convention on Climate Change is currently taking place in Bonn, from Nov. 6-17. At a side event hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), BBVA was invited to share its approach to green finance.

In a report entitled The Future of Football, Futurizon predicts that in the future, sports events will be broadcast using tiny drones capable of hovering a few inches above the playing field, swirling around spectators or chasing the ball in the air. Except for referees, players and coaches, ordinary spectators have always enjoyed these events from architectural points of view:  the stands or the sides of the pitch. And, even if we don’t realize it yet, narratives have also depended on these points of view. What would happen if the perspective changed? Would it be possible to televise a match exactly as the referee sees it? Would that be of any interest at all? Or telling what an embedded drone observes?

Technological capital, human capital, regulatory capital and social capital… all are dimensions that the science of economics measures and includes in its analyses. Cultural capital is not a common concept in this science, however. But Timothy Besley, Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE) feels it is fundamental as a conditioning aspect of the economic activity of any organization, institution or country.

BBVA Data & Analytics, BBVA’s center of excellence in financial data analysis, has announced today that it is joining the “Data for Climate Action” challenge hosted by Global Pulse, a United Nations innovation initiative on big data.

Francisco González, Group Executive Chairman of BBVA, presented the book The Next Step: Exponential Life in an event held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  This work collects the insights of twenty of the world’s most authoritative voices in a number of fields, analyzing the tremendous opportunities – and the risks and uncertainties – that the so-called “exponential technologies” will bring to humanity

The ceremony of the 11th edition of the the BBVA Foundation’s Biodiversity Conservation Awards has revealed the need to find global policies against climate change. These awards recognize the efforts of the winners to avoid the destruction of the natural heritage and promote knowledge, action and awareness of ecology and conservation biology.

Francisco González, along with the Minister of Agriculture and Fishing, Food and the Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, presided the BVA Foundation Biodiversity Conservation Awards ceremony. The winners of the 11th edition of these awards were the Grupo para la Rehabilitación de la Fauna Autóctona y su Hábitat (GREFA), and the NGO Conservation Land Trust, and the communications professional Carlos de Hita.

How did the sharing economy become a phenomenon? The initial idea - communities that share resources to improve services and limit the environmental impact of their actions - has evolved and reemerged in recent years thanks to the success of startups such as Uber, Airbnb or Taskrabbit. We asked some experts to help us understand why.

The planet's survival is an issue over which, by definition, all interests converge. After wasting precius decades and, with some exceptions, renewable energy finally seems to be managing to get politicians, businesses and citizens to unite and fight for a common cause.

BBVA Foundation’s Biodiversity Conservation Awards recognize each year a number of activities based on scientific knowledge of nature. Each year, the winners show that good results can be obtained that have a lasting effect on the environment. This edition’s winners are engaged in activities as diverse as the rehabilitation of Spanish fauna, land conservation or recording a sound archive of nature.

As a result of the integral transformation process kicked off in 2016, BBVA Bancomer established a scheme to implement a strategy based on the new concept of “Responsible Business” as the focal point of its social responsibility actions. The strategy is built on three cornerstones in first place, social actions aimed at fostering education and which are carried out through the BBVA Bancomer Foundation; the second, financial education; and third the promotion of entrepreneurship, primarily with a societal focus.

Apollo 11 was a milestone for solving complex problems. Hence the name moonshots: projects that propose radical ideas for tackling major problems by using futuristic technology. Their capacity for innovation has just started.

Our planet’s health depends on the awareness and collaboration from every single person in it. It depends on the adoption of clean and renewable energies that replace finite and polluting sources. Political and climatological factors also have an impact, but technological development and the laws that support and drive their adoption are indispensable.