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Listen, Don't Talk

Don't Take Our Word For It, Take Theirs


We could go on and on about the size of the problem and the size of the opportunity.

We will spare you and instead of us doing it, we will let the leading financial institutions (including banks, insurance companies, institutional investors), research bodies, governments and multinational conglomerates do it for us.

The case for investment in Natural Capital, which includes biodiversity and risk reduction, and the required natural asset accounting methodologies is beyond clear:

  • The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review commissioned by Her Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury) and the Government of the United Kingdom 🔗
  • FINANCING NATURE: Closing the Global Biodiversity Financing Gap commissioned by The Paulson Institute (Hank Paulson former Secretary of US Treasury), The Nature Conservancy, and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability 🔗
  • A New National Strategy to Reflect Natural Assets on America’s Balance Sheet, the White House: National Strategy To Develop Statistics For Environmental Economic Decisions - "A U.S. System of Natural Capital Accounting" 🔗
  • Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment - Willis Towers Watson and 120 members with over $20 trillion AUM 🔗
  • IPBES Values Assessment: multiple values of nature and its benefits, including biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services 🔗
  • IPBES-IPCC Report on Biodiversity and Climate Change 🔗
  • Beyond ‘Business as Usual’: Biodiversity Targets and Finance - Natural Capital Finance Alliance 🔗
  • NYSE: Natural Asset Companies (NACs) 🔗
  • The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BES) from Swiss Re 🔗
  • Robert Costanza leading authority on Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services 🔗
  • Blackrock: Our approach to engagement on natural capital 🔗
  • Opportunities and Risks in Natural Capital UBS 🔗
  • Climate Asset Management from HSBC and Pollination 🔗
  • Valuing natural capital is key to the future of investment - World Economic Forum (WEF) 🔗
  • Natural Climate Solutions Alliance by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) 🔗
  • Natural Climate Solutions for Corporates by Natural Climate Solutions Alliance (NCS Alliance) 🔗
  • 2021 Engagement Priorities: Natural Capital - Morgan Stanley 🔗
  • The Changing Wealth of Nations: Managing Assets for the Future by The World Bank 🔗
  • The Climate-Biodiversity Nexus Quantified commissioned by the Government of the Netherlands 🔗
  • The Natural Capital Project at Stanford 🔗
  • The Natural Capital Protocol - Collaboratively developed by 38 organizations 🔗
  • Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) 🔗
  • Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) – made up of more than 450 banks, insurers and asset managers across 45 countries – promised to deliver up to $100trn to help economies transition to net zero which includes nature based solutions 🔗
  • UN-convened Net-Zero Banking Alliance represents about 40% of global banking assets 🔗
  • Unilever - protecting biodiversity and regenerating nature 🔗
  • Walmart Nature Commitments 🔗
  • Shell Oil Biodiversity Commitments 🔗
  • And while not talked about in the mainstream media the list goes on and on and on

The Value of Nature & Nature Positive

In June 2022 IPBES released the report: “Decisions Based on Narrow Set of Market Values of Nature Underpin the Global Biodiversity Crisis and that there More than 50 Methods & Approaches Exist to Make Visible the Diverse Values of Nature”. The report is the result of a four-year methodological assessment by 82 top scientists and experts from every region of the world. The report concluded that the way nature is valued in political and economic decisions is both a key driver of the global biodiversity crisis and a vital opportunity to address it. The report found that the number of studies that value nature has increased on average by more than 10% per year over the last four decades.

This trend is indicative of where the world is headed and frankly needs to be, a world where nature and ecosystems services are properly accounted for and valued. This is becoming known as "Nature Positive". We are tracking and evaluating all the Natural Asset / Natural Capital and Ecosystem Accounting Methods here.

Among all the initiatives out there, there are four that, from a business and revenue perspective, lead the way and special attention should be paid to. These are:

  • TCFD: Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures 🔗
  • TNFD: Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures 🔗
  • TSVCM: Taskforce for Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets 🔗
  • Science Based Targets for Nature and Climate - SBTi / SBTN 🔗

While there are many other nature frameworks and accounting methods, these four are all linked to and being driven at the financial sector level including banks, insurance companies and public corporations. In the absence of mandatory policy, financial sector pressure will directly influence and impact corporate and industry actions and behavior. “Voluntary” quickly becomes implicitly mandatory when financial market and investor pressure are combined with social and consumer pressure.

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) created the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in 2015. The Task Force, championed by Michael Bloomberg and Mark Carney, has now delivered a standardized framework for corporate reporting on climate impacts and dependencies. The number of organizations supporting TCFD has grown five-fold from 2017 to 2021, at an average annual rate of 73%. As of 2021, over 2,600 organizations supported the TCFD framework, with a combined market capitalization of $25 trillion. These organizations span 89 different countries and jurisdictions, highlighting the global support for climate risk reporting. Additionally, 1,069 or nearly 41% of these TCFD supporters are financial institutions, responsible for $194 trillion in assets.

Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)

TNFD mission is to develop and deliver a risk management and disclosure framework for organizations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks, with the ultimate aim of supporting a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes. TNFD is market-led, science-backed and government-supported and The Taskforce consists of 34 individual Taskforce Members representing financial institutions, corporates and market service providers with $19.4T in assets which is supported by over 600 institutions and 16 leading scientific organizations and standard setting bodies. The TNFD builds on and is using the Natural Capital Protocol from the Natural Capital Coalition.

Taskforce for Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM)

The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets is a private sector led initiative working to scale an effective and efficient voluntary carbon market to help meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Taskforce was initiated by Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance; it is chaired by Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered. The 250+ member institutions represent buyers and sellers of carbon credits, standard setters, the financial sector, market infrastructure providers, civil society, international organizations and academics. An advisory board of 20 environmental NGOs, investor alliances, academics and international organizations provide guidance on TSVCM recommendations.

Science Based Targets for Nature & Climate

Building on the momentum of the SBTi (carbon and net-zero), the SBTN enables companies and cities to set targets for climate and nature. The SBTN equips companies as well as cities with the guidance to set science-based targets for all of Earth’s systems. The SBTN is part of the Global Commons Alliance, which brings together powerful leadership, technology, science, innovation, and communication to transform the world’s economic systems and protect the global commons.

Climate, Carbon and Nature

At the heart of all four of these initiatives are exactly what Basin was created for: climate, carbon and nature.

Elizabeth Mrema, TNFD Co-Chair with Mark Carney said at COP26: “We need to look at climate, biodiversity and land degradation as a three-fold crisis. We can’t look at them separately because the solutions are also connected.

Need to nature on your balance sheet? This what Basin does.