Seven solutions could unlock private demand for UK natural flood management projects, boosting the market for such initiatives should the government adopt them, a Green Finance Institute (GFI) expert group has said.
These actions include introducing open-access mapping software for projects, a database for recording natural flood management (NFM) assets, and development of NFM standards, GFI said.
“There is limited buyside demand for the flood risk reduction or ecosystem services generated by NFM,” GFI said in a 117-page report.
“Proposed NFM projects, in which the private sector is a provider of capital, often as a co-funder with the public sector, are stalling.”
The report aims to help overcome the barriers. A 20-member group spanning finance, local government, and academia wrote the document, which was broadly supported by organisations including Finance Earth, Aviva, and WWF.
NFM involves working with nature in an area to reduce flood risk, through practices such as improved soil management, planting woodland, or creating ponds. Flooding is the UK’s number one climate threat, causing millions of pounds of damage annually, GFI said.
Digging a pond at the base of a slope, on which a woodland has been planted, in Lancashire. Credit: Sam Hope, Wyre Rivers Trust
The GFI report proposed:
- A free, open-access mapping application to highlight NFM opportunities across England for reducing flood risk
- Development of a natural capital assessment tool framework to guide the valuation of NFM co-benefits
- A database to record all NFM asset information
- Funding to help projects to focus on engaging potential buyers
- Development of government-backed NFM standards to ensure high integrity of projects
- Clarity on the stacking of individual ecosystem services alongside NFM
- Update the public funding processes for flood risk management
NFM projects should generate wider benefits including carbon sequestration, biodiversity uplift, water quality improvements, and access to green space, according to the report.
“We support the recommendations … WWF and Aviva have been working together since 2021, and, as one of the UK’s largest insurers, Aviva understand the damage and impact caused when floods hit our communities. NFM delivers the dual benefits of reducing risk to people and property, while protecting nature,” WWF and Aviva said in a joint statement.
For example, a village in Norfolk has weathered eight large storms with no flooding since the installation of NFM measures, they said.
“The NFM market in the UK could be used to deliver large-scale nature restoration and protection, and a range of broader social and ecological co-benefits,” said Caleb Wheeler-Robinson, senior associate at advisor Finance Earth.
“We hope this report will help stimulate demand from private buyers for NFM outcomes, as well as government support for market infrastructure.”
This month, the UK government announced a water credit pilot in Cambridge through retrofitting water-efficient devices, such as tap aerators, into buildings.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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