The Environment Bank is to offer voluntary biodiversity credits on sale from a 30-year pilot site of undisclosed size in south England, it has said.
The pilot, the first such voluntary one from the company, is the first step towards creating a “global network” of similar biodiversity credit-focused initiatives, the UK-headquartered conservation organisation said at a New York Climate Week event.
What marks the Environment Bank’s pilot project out from its previous work, according to the group’s CEO, James Cross, is that it is a “fully-funded” activity across the 30-year period.
“I am excited to be announcing today the launch of our global voluntary biodiversity credit, underpinned fully-funded, landscape-scale restoration project working in partnership with local communities and aligned to the very highest standards of integrity,” he told the event on Tuesday.
The credits are available from the “blueprint” restoration project that is part of 1,300 acres the company has set aside for biodiversity credits, the company said.
“The project launching in England is the first site in a global network,” explained Emma Toovey, chief ecology officer at Environment Bank, at the launch event. “It is one project of many that we want to do.”
Environment Bank confirmed the project was “starting very soon” but did not want to disclose further details such as pricing ahead of its formal launch date, with Tuesday’s announcement more of a statement of intent.
These projects are to be secured, bound, and actively managed by the Environment Bank for a minimum of 30 years.
“We pitch them at 30 years to secure long-term finance and to make it realistic, achievable, and tangible,” Toovey added.
The aim is that buyers of the units can become early leaders in the biodiversity crediting space, rather than wait for one of the emerging plethora of methodologies and standards to become dominant.
“Organisations keen to be a first mover in the race to be nature positive are able to acquire an equity stake in this project for its entire 30-year lifespan,” Cross continued, with the investment easily able to sit within existing nature strategies.
“An organisation, people, customers, shareholders, can log on to a system and see real-time biodiversity and natural capital growth in that investment,” he added, suggesting news bulletins, updates, and constant monitoring of the projects would be possible.
“Of course, because [an organisation] has a biodiversity equity stake, it means we can simply shine that share through whichever international biodiversity credit measurement presents itself in the coming years.”
The pilot marks a change from the company’s previous activities managing land under the British mandatory scheme, which falls under biodiversity net gain (BNG) legislation due to come into effect in November.
Other panelists at the launch also pointed to the increasing “blurring” of the lines between voluntary and compliance, especially in light of the published framework from the TNFD, also formally announced during the week in New York.
By Roy Manuell in New York – roy@carbon-pulse.com
