The UK has launched a government-backed green finance standard to encourage investment in nature restoration and prevent greenwashing.
The new nature finance-standard, launched by the British Standards Institution (BSI) on Tuesday 25 March, is hoped to build confidence among businesses that nature- investments are making a real difference to the UK’s natural environment.
The new standard will promote investment in projects such as wetland restoration, water quality improvement, flood resilience, and habitat creation.
Furthermore, the initiative aligns with the UK’s Plan for Change, recognising that a healthy environment is crucial for economic growth.
Secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, Steve Reed, said: “We need urgent action from across society to address the nature crisis, and businesses have a crucial role to play in that effort. By having clear standards, we can strike a blow to greenwashing and give businesses confidence that their investment is truly helping our natural world recover.”
Developed with input from businesses, land managers, and devolved governments (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), the standards aim to ensure high integrity in nature markets and encourage responsible investments.
The launch comes after the BFI developed a set of overarching principals, which specify the requirements for high-integrity UK nature markets.
Scott Steedman, director-general, standards, at BSI, said: “Today marks a key milestone for the Nature Investment Standards (NIS) Programme with the launch of updated overarching principles ready for adoption across the UK.
“The principles are designed to provide consistency and rigour for high-integrity UK nature markets that trade in real, measurable environmental benefits. This supports the goal of increasing investment into nature, helping to create new revenue streams for farmers, land managers and other suppliers of nature-based solutions,” Steedman added.
Carbon-credits
The BSI is also launching a consultation on a first version of a Natural Carbon Standard, as part of a wider framework of standards. This will gather market views specifically on high integrity principles for projects selling nature-based carbon credits in UK markets.
These credits will consist of habitats which store carbon, such as woodlands or peatlands.
“A healthy natural environment is crucial to economic growth. Without a healthy environment, there is no food, no business, and no economy,” Reed added.
Previously, the Green Finance Institute found that nature-related risks, including water shortages and soil health reduction, could lead to a 6% reduction in GDP in the years ahead.
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