emergence-of-natural-capital-and-biodiversity-asset-class

Etude

L'émergence de la classe d'actifs du capital naturel et de la biodiversité

Cartographie des parties prenantes françaises

In October 2018, the WWF disclosed a report revealing that in the past 40 years, more than 60% of wildlife populations have disappeared. However, our economies heavily rely on Natural Capital. Ecosystems provide around $100bn of free economic services per year.

Moreover to limit global warming in accordance with the Paris Agreement and the United Nation's Sustainable Development Objectives (SDGs), the protection and sustainable management of Biodiversity is absolutely essential. It implies that economic players build a local and international supply chain based on agro-ecological projects.

Natural Capital finance is nascent and composed by heterogeneous actors, which are not necessarily aware that they are being part of a common sector. Economic players must now change the paradigm for resources management and build an economic rationale for scaling up. The emergence of the Natural Capital and Biodiversity asset class is a much-needed breakthrough.

This analysis, conducted by Finance for Tomorrow with the assistance of Deloitte, is a baseline to identify key recommendations and to serve as a guideline for the future work of Finance for Tomorrow’s working group on Natural Capital and Biodiversity. The three key recommendations are the following:
 

  • Build awareness and track-record : Capital providers and project leaders should pursue the development of a significant track record to demonstrate the economic profitability of investment in projects related to Biodiversity. Enablers and networks could focus their studies on underlying economic models to foster the emergence of this asset class.
  • Scale-up : Scale is necessary to attract mainstream capital providers and increase impact. To structure a sound deal flow with solid business plans, capital providers should work on capacity building, supporting entrepreneurs and providing technical assistance. Financial innovation like Biodiversity bonds could be developed in order to design scalable financial products from small-scale projects.
  • Measure risks & impacts : Due to the fading borders surrounding the term of Natural Capital and Biodiversity, data collection is still insufficient and no common measurability nor indicators have been unanimously defined yet. The development of simple common metrics (or proxies) would enable actors to set targets and monitor projects’ risks and impacts without slowing down the development of the Natural Capital and Biodiversity asset class.  

L'émergence de la classe d'actifs du capital naturel et de la biodiversité

Cartographie des parties prenantes françaises