News: Nature Finance Impact Hub Winter Update
2023 has been a bumper year for Nature Finance projects, with announcements across Landscape Recovery (Rounds one and two), the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland and other legislation updates e.g. Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). In the Nature Finance Impact Hub, this means a busy time to track and gather data for new projects. In this year alone, we’ve seen 32 projects starting their journey to investment readiness, offering eight different ecosystem services. These new pioneering projects are helping to explore some of the complex challenges in Nature Finance, across stacking and bundling ecosystem services, attracting private investment for new social and environmental outcomes (e.g., species recovery) and how to make sure these natural capital improvements are financially viable.
With the Nature Finance Impact Hub, this means more projects, more data and more innovation in how to leverage private sector finance for improved outcomes. It’s keeping our data gurus busy and is a sign of the increasing focus on alternative revenue streams for natural capital projects. This growth in nature finance markets means a greater choice for investors – the Nature Finance Impact Hub can act as a catalogue, helping to communicate the outcomes from projects and how buyers and investors get involved. The data within can support in seeking out projects that match CSR ambitions and create a partnership that can help further environmental and social outcomes.
We’ve also launched a new parallel service, BNG Finder. The BNG Finder, powered by the Nature Finance Impact Hub, aims at assisting suppliers and developers to enter the biodiversity net gain (BNG) market. As a curated service, the BNG Finder facilitates connections between BNG buyers and sellers of high integrity habitat, river and hedgerow units with an aim to offer choice to both parties and help speed up nature recovery. Get in touch or visit our website www.bngfinder.co.uk to find out more.
It looks set to be an even busier 2024 for UK nature finance, with the Landscape Recovery Round 2 projects announced, along with the new wave of Natural Environment Investment Readiness Funding. Do get in touch if you’re looking for green finance advice, and our natural capital green finance team at Accelar would be happy to help. As always, please share this newsletter and the NFIH with contacts if you think it will be of interest, and we welcome new users of the Hub.
Project Highlights
At Accelar, we are working with the Albanwise Environment team on the Leven Carrs project, identifying business and financial opportunities for wetland creation and water vole species recovery in Yorkshire. Read more about our involvement here.
Another Landscape Recovery project in the spotlight is the Evenlode project in the Cotswolds, the focus of a recent Defra blog. The project team was formed, and is led, by local farmers who have a reliance on the River Evenlode. They are looking to improve water quality and restore 3,500 hectares of land that will support nature and productive farming. Their approach involves multiple mini pilots to test land management options, from artificial river meandering to repurposing arable fields.
Elsewhere, Accelar has supported Groundwork NE and Cumbria in its Revitalising our Estuaries campaign, which looks to attract sustainable investment into Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Private investment from local businesses in North East of England is enabling pioneering environmental improvements, through the creation of vertipools, saltmarsh and floating ecosystems. Follow the link to read the press release.
Nature finance in the news:
The interest in green finance continues to grow, with significant developments in standards and frameworks across the industry in the last few months. Below are a few of the top highlights.
Government announces new BNG guidance and regulations
Just in time for BNG to become mandatory in January, the government published the draft secondary legislation at the end of November. This included six Statutory Instruments (SIs) set to become law, covering items ranging from the statutory metric to the fees and penalties associated with the BNG register. More information and guidance can be found on the Defra website.
Nature Market Principles published to tackle greenwashing
In October, major UK nature charities, including The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, Woodland Trust, and the National Trust, have jointly released the Nature Markets Principles to combat corporate greenwashing. These principles address carbon credits, biodiversity units, and nutrient credits, with the goal of promoting responsible private investment in nature recovery.
Government announces nature package to combat climate change
A new nature package looking to combat climate change and increase the UK’s public access and engagement to nature was announced by the government at the end of November. Key components of the package include a search for a new national park, 34 new landscape recovery projects, new forests and funding to help get more children outdoors. The projects range from peatland restoration to woodland creation.
New conservation funding for species
In September, it was announced that 63 projects across the country had received a share of £14.5 million under the Species Recovery Grant Scheme by Natural England, aimed at facilitating the recovery of 150 species. The funding aims to enhance habitat conditions for the rarest species. Among these projects is the National Trust and White Chalk Species Recovery, which focuses on supporting the recovery of specialised flora and fauna.
Broadway Initiative State of UK Nature Markets Report
In October, the Broadway Initiative reviewed the progress made against the Financing Nature Recovery UK Report published in July 2022 and produced the State of UK Nature Markets 2023 Report. The report highlighted that whilst some progress has been made, significant action is still needed. It found “limited progress in translating strategic goals and policy ambition into specific actions to facilitate market development” and recommends four priorities for action. The Nature Finance Impact Hub helps with the second priority in quantifying public and private sector demand for nature services.
Task force for Nature Related Financial Disclosure Update
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures has continued in its path to help organisations report and take action on nature-related challenges. They have recently released recommendations that help in reporting and acting on evolving nature-related issues.
FIRNS Round 1 Successful Projects Announced
Launched earlier this year by Nature Scot and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Facility for Investment Ready Nature Scotland (FIRNS) grant has been awarded to 27 new projects in the first round. The grant was introduced to fund projects that support the environmental development in Scotland and address how private finance can be leveraged to the benefit of nature. These projects have been added to the Nature Finance Impact Hub, and you can use our new grant filter to look at emerging projects. Find out more here.
Funding Opportunities & Market Development
Key announcements made in 2023:
Impact Hub data update
In 2023, we captured data for an additional 140 projects that are either actively attracting private or blended finance, or are under development. From 5 different countries, these encompass 17 ecosystem services and over a million hectares of restored nature. The total equivalent carbon captured by nature positive projects recorded on the Hub now totals over 10 million tonnes!
The key numbers
133
Projects under development
91
Nature positive green finance projects
17
Ecosystem services
29
Countries
1.9M
Hectares restored
10.1M
Tonnes CO2e captured
8.0M
Hectares conserved
Submit your project
We are constantly looking for new and exciting project data to add to the Hub which we hope will help to develop strong business cases for investors, as well as build confidence for landowners and project developers who are interested in leveraging green finance for nature. If you would like to submit your project to the Hub, please fill out the form on the hub here.