Driving private sector investment in nature via NEIRF - final funding window

Following the initial allocation of funding to 29 projects earlier this year, round two of the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) is open for applications by 3 February 2022.

The NEIRF provides grants of up to £100,000 to environmental groups, local authorities, businesses and other organisations. It aims to help nature projects in England to be developed to the point where they can attract private investment. Building a pipeline of investable projects is all part of the UK’s efforts to demonstrate leadership and action in scaling up private green finance for nature and climate announced during COP26.

Accelar’s initial analysis of the projects funded in round 1 indicated that carbon and habitat banking dominated the focus of the funding to date. Though with more than 15 different ecosystem services that can be associated with these kinds of projects in a UK context, we believe that there should be real opportunities to test and demonstrate how markets can work and interact for a breadth of nature’s benefits. For example catchment services such as delivering natural flood risk management, managing water resources and improving water quality, or others like regenerative agriculture and eco-tourism. To do this we believe that it will be critical that projects signal the potential for buyers, sellers and investors come together and demonstrate innovative ways to generate revenues and positive environmental impact. That need has been central in driving the development of the Nature Finance Impact Hub, recently launched by Accelar in collaboration with the green finance community.

If you are considering green finance for your nature positive project, including the potential for NEIRF round 2 funding, please get in touch to explore ideas and how we can advise including in relation to market and project development, revenue models and impact evaluation.

You can register for free access to the Nature Finance Impact Hub at www.accelerategreenfinance.com

Further information about NEIRF Round 2 is available here (via Gov.uk on behalf of Defra, the Environment Agency and Natural England).

New Nature Finance Impact Hub