A new nature-focused investment coalition, which aims to replicate the success of a pension fund-backed climate initiative, has been launched.
Led by the World Climate Foundation, the Nature Investment Coalition (NIC) is a global scheme aiming to plug the gap in financing for nature-based solutions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
The project seeks to replicate the strides made by the foundation’s existing scheme, Climate Investment Coalition (CIC), a public-private initiative that in 2021 facilitated a total €120bn commitment from 42 pension funds across the Nordics, Faroe Islands, and the UK to invest in climate solutions by 2030.
The launch of the NIC coincided with the CIC announcing plans to expand globally.
“In order to set humanity on the path to a net-zero future by 2030, we need to see an explosion of financing for innovative climate solutions,” said World Climate Foundation chief executive officer Jens Nielsen.
The CIC, created by the Danish pensions sector and government, was launched by former long-time PKA chief Peter Damgaard Jensen, as well as the Danish Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities, Dan Jørgensen, in conjunction with the COP25 conference in Madrid.
Key backers of the CIC include the DKK710bn (€95.2bn) statutory pension fund ATP, DKK400bn PKA and DKK330bn PensionDanmark.
Nature coalition
Speaking to IPE, CIC chair Damgaard Jensen said that while nature investments will be a large part of climate adaptation, they do not have the same clear income streams as their climate counterparts, such as wind farms or solar energy investments.
For asset owners to have the confidence to commit to the NIC, Damgaard Jensen stressed the importance of governmental nature-related policies.
One example is the implementation of the EU Regulation on Deforestation Free Products (EUDR), which Damgaard Jensen said acts as a signal to asset owners interested in committing to nature-based investments.
“We don’t have a lot of different assets in nature that are investable today. However, we also didn’t have a lot of climate investment opportunities back in 2015,” Damgaard Jensen told IPE.
Recognising the key role of the private sector in scaling up nature financing, the NIC initiative will look to establish public-private partnerships in finance, business, and government to drive investment in ecosystem protection and restoration.
It is aiming to mobilise “tens of billions” in commitments from the private sector to nature-based investments by 2030.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that global finance flows to nature-based solutions must triple to around €501bn per year by 2030 to meet the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The International Energy Agency estimates that global clean-energy investments must triple to €3.7trn per year by 2030 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Both the CIC and the NIC aim to secure and announce new financial commitments from cross-sector partners in the run-up to, and beyond, COP29 in Azerbaijan and COP30 in Brazil.
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