Some 20 financial institutions have launched a group that will work towards supporting the British government’s target of delivering finance for nature recovery in the UK as well as developing high-integrity domestic nature markets.
The UK Financial Institutions for Nature Group (G-FIN) was launched by the Green Finance Institute’s nature programme, GFI announced Friday.
“Private sector investment is urgently needed if we hope to reach the UK’s nature goals this decade. The market infrastructure is being put in place to enable the flow of private sector capital into nature recovery and nature-based solutions, but there is still much to be done,” said GFI CEO Rhian-Mari Thomas.
“The support of the UK financial sector will be critical, in addition to the support of the broader UK private sector, and the GFI is delighted by the enthusiasm and leadership of those joining this new group.”
G-FIN will identify barriers to the government’s ambition to increase private sector finance for nature restoration and nature-based solutions to £1 billion by 2030.
Government initiatives where G-FIN will contribute to include setting up a national database for nature-based projects, developing high-integrity nature-based markets, the UK’s green taxonomy, and the country’s uptake of the Taskforce on Nature-based Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
The government’s nature-based market ambitions cover both carbon and biodiversity, and initiatives so far include the voluntary UK Woodland Carbon Code and UK Peatland Code as well as the Biodiversity Net Gain scheme in England.
It has also set up the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF), which is supporting the development of 86 nature projects across England to generate revenue from nature markets and operate on repayable private sector investment, according to the government’s 2023 Green Finance Strategy.
“The UK government will act to unlock the potential of high-integrity voluntary carbon and nature markets to contribute to net zero and wider environmental improvement. We will consult later this year on specific steps and interventions needed to mobilise additional finance through high-integrity voluntary markets and protect against the risk of greenwashing,” the plan said.
It also earlier this year released a nature markets framework, with principles and priorities for markets addressing carbon, biodiversity, and water.
“The establishment of this group follows on the success of the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings and the Coalition for the Decarbonisation of Road Transport – which were established to identify and unlock barriers to sectoral decarbonisation,” GFI said.
Initial members of the new group include a number of the country’s major financial institutions, including Abrdn, Aviva, Barclays, British Business bank, Climate asset Management, Finance Earth, Green Angel Ventures, Federated Hermes, Impax Asset Management, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group, Oakham Wealth Management, Oxbury Bank, Posaidon Capital, Rathbone Greenbank Investments, Schroders, Scottish National investment Bank, Triodos Bank, UBS Optimus Foundation, and UK Infrastructure Bank.
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