Australian think-tank Climateworks Centre on Wednesday released the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue (NCMC) as a consistent reference source for companies to measure, manage, and report on their natural capital assets.

Version 1.0 of the catalogue aims to identify metrics that companies can use in the management of their natural assets and their nature-related impacts and dependencies as well as in external reporting against various disclosure standards and frameworks.

“Natural capital has many aspects with varying definitions and metrics. There has been a lack of agreed common language and measurement approaches, making it hard for investors to aggregate information and policymakers and businesses to drive improvements at scale,” Eithne Cahill, a programme impact manager at Climateworks Centre, wrote in an explainer.

“Climateworks Centre has been working for four years with industry, government, other cross-sectoral stakeholders, and experts to help fill this gap. The result is an agreed, evidence-based set of common measures for natural capital that are aligned with international frameworks and locally relevant to Australian land types.”

The think-tank published a proof of concept for the catalogue in 2021, and has since worked with a number of universities and other stakeholders and experts to develop Version 1.0.

During that time, a number of nature-related frameworks have emerged internationally, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and the NCMC has been designed to align with that and other leading global standards.

“The adoption of the Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the release of the TNFD’s final beta framework for nature-related risk management and disclosure and the International Sustainability Standards Board’s inaugural company disclosure standards are recent examples of global moves to place renewed value on nature,” Cahill wrote.

“This ensures that all users of the NCMC are taking a consistent approach to measurement that aligns with work already being done by farmers, land managers, and industry peak bodies across Australia.”

Corporations worldwide are currently scrambling to settle on metrics and reporting approaches for nature, as national and regional regulations are being imposed as part of increasing government efforts to battle the ongoing nature and biodiversity loss crisis.

Last month the EU-funded Transparent Project published the Natural Capital Management Accounting methodology, a world-first effort to provide companies with practical guidance for environmental profit and loss bookkeeping.

“When businesses incorporate natural capital into their decision-making, it creates space for improvements in a range of areas, such as supply-chain management, risk assessment and management, business sustainability, resilience, and uninterrupted production and operation,” wrote Climateworks’ Cahill.

“Governments can use information on the state of natural capital to provide important practical information for evaluating different policies, investment objectives, and financial risk management.”

The NCMC has been designed to assist in that process, adapted to the Australian market.

While Version 1.0 has now been released, Climateworks expects it to be continuously improved upon based on feedback, and said it will undertake extensive stakeholder consultation on the NCMC’s technical and usability aspects over the next 6-18 months.

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