Hubs Nature Finance Learning Hub Nature Finance Review 2023

Nature Finance Review 2023

We are pleased to publish the inaugural review of the nature finance project pipeline in the UK.
This six month project, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, collected and analysed data from 219 projects. Including 177 place-based (sub-regional) projects and 42 projects designed to enable recipients and providers of nature finance to interact.

Nature finance refers to the trading of ecosystem service credits, together with the investments that are sometimes required to enable this trading to take place. A prerequisite for nature finance is the supply of sufficient quality and quantity of projects, together with aggregation of them in ways meaningful to buyers and other financiers.

From seagrass to street trees, this review presents projects which are taking place in diverse environmental and social settings. Nature finance projects in the UK include the restoration of peatland to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to the planting of woodland to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reduce local flood risk. Find case studies, in-depth analysis and expert insight in the nature finance review 2023.

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  • 24% of the project pipeline said that they were generating revenue, not including projects receiving investment readiness support, for which only partial data were available.
  • The five most common revenue streams being pursued are sales of biodiversity units (66% of projects), carbon credits (61% of projects), payments for water management (42%), payments for reductions in the loss of nutrients beyond regulatory requirements (33%), and ecotourism (19%).

Take stock the fast-paced green enterprise area and entrepreneurial endeavour in the UK.