The UK has launched a roadmap for high-integrity marine natural capital markets in order to safeguard its coastal environment and ensure investor confidence, which will be supported by the rollout of country-wide codes for coastal ecosystem services.
The establishment of high-integrity marine and coastal natural capital markets has moved a step closer with the publication of a joint roadmap from a cross-UK coalition, suggesting key actions to take through to 2030 in order to meaningfully protect seascape from increased threats.
The roadmap, a partnership between The Crown Estate, Blue Marine Foundation, Crown Estate Scotland, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Finance Earth, and Pollination, was launched in the British legislature on Monday and was co-designed through a year-long process involving over 200 UK and international experts across academia, industry, finance, government, and NGOs.
The National Audit Office estimates that the UK’s marine natural capital assets are worth £211 billion.
Among the seven key suggested actions for implementation, is to speed up the development of UK-wide codes for marine and coastal ecosystem services, including the ongoing development of a Saltmarsh Code and potential equivalent codes for seagrass, kelp, and oysters, which would measure both carbon and biodiversity benefits.
A first pilot version of the UK Saltmarsh Code is expected later this year, following ongoing debate among experts about how much of the carbon sequestration is long-lasting and additional, Carbon Pulse was told last September.
The UK has lost about 80% of its saltmarsh ecosystems over the last roughly 200 years, and so there is ongoing effort to restore these marshy coastal wetlands that act as important carbon stores and areas of biodiversity.
Development of the UK Saltmarsh Code is being led by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, with the first phase of the code’s development funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Its launch would accompany the UK’s existing Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Carbon Code, with the latter likely to combine biodiversity credits with carbon from 2025.
Backed by the UK government, these two codes offer the country’s only official carbon units for woodland and peatland, which can be purchased and retired by companies to offset greenhouse gas emissions.
The inclusion of biodiversity credits is significant as it could provide government backing for voluntary biodiversity credit standards, driving corporate investment in nature, at a time when demand in the nascent area is lagging due to lack of confidence.
Progress on other marine codes in the UK is detailed below.
The seven recommendations with actions for implementation to 2030 as laid out under ‘High-Integrity Marine Natural Capital Markets in the UK – A Roadmap for Action’ are:
- Identify priority opportunities and approved methods for marine and coastal conservation and restoration.
- Deliver seascape-scale natural capital projects through combined public and private funding.
- Implement policy and regulatory requirements to drive demand for marine natural capital.
- Accelerate the development of UK-wide codes for marine and coastal ecosystem services.
- Address critical evidence gaps for the development of marine natural capital markets.
- Develop publicly accessible and standardised approaches to data collection, hosting and monitoring.
- Build the necessary skills and capacity to harness marine natural capital opportunities.
The roadmap acknowledges the growing pressures faced by the UK’s marine and coastal environments, including rising temperatures, certain fishing and agricultural practices, infrastructure development, and water pollution, and says that natural capital markets can provide a valuable route to generate payments to protect these ecosystems and unlock private finance where public and philanthropic funding is often stretched.
However, it also notes the potential risks of greenwashing and lack of community involvement if these projects are not well designed and managed, which would damage investor confidence and deter investment.
The launch of a roadmap for high-integrity marine natural capital markets is intended to ward against this, in order to deliver tangible impact for people and nature.
“The UK’s marine natural and coastal ecosystems play a critical role in underpinning our economy, health and wellbeing. Our coasts, estuaries and offshore waters contribute an estimated £47 billion to the economy and support over 500,000 jobs,” said Caroline Price, head of nature and environment at The Crown Estate.
“While work is already underway to advance marine natural capital markets across the four nations, today’s roadmap pulls these different strands together to present a coherent pathway to be used by government, private sector, financial institutions, academia, NGOs, and wider civil society alike, to drive this development forward,” she said.
NEW MARINE CODES
Development of a seagrass carbon code is next in line after saltmarsh, and a kelp carbon code will follow that, Price told Carbon Pulse on the sidelines of the roadmap launch in London on Monday.
More work needs to be done on building the evidence base and longevity of data sets to better understand seagrass and kelp in relation to carbon sequestration, she said.
While there is also ongoing research to understand how much carbon is stored within the structure of oyster shells, with a potential code developed in relation to that too, she said.
Launch of the Saltmarsh Code is still expected later this year, she said, which would then lead to the roll out of initial saltmarsh projects.
Adding that the Saltmarsh Code would initially be focused on new saltmarsh areas as opposed to enriching existing saltmarsh.
She was unable to say where the first saltmarsh projects may be located, but stressed that doing so will require collaboration between many stakeholders with a shared commitment.
Price also spoke of the importance of ensuring that any marine natural capital market developed in the UK could play into the international market, while still ensuring high integrity prevails.
The recognition of biodiversity value by these habitats is also an ongoing discussion, in order to “find a way to formally recognise that biodiversity value” and potentially stack it on top of carbon credits to generate more funding, she said.
MARINE NET GAIN
Today’s roadmap accompanies the government’s work to develop an assessment framework on marine net gain (MNG), which would follow a similar principle to the land-based biodiversity net gain (BNG) legislation, which has required some development projects since February to achieve a net improvement of 10% biodiversity.
Last December, the UK government said it was commissioning the evidence it needs to take MNG proposals to the next stage, including the conducting of an impact assessment on the cost benefits.
A DROP IN THE OCEAN
Just 1% of global climate finance is spent on the ocean, according to climate change investment firm Pollination, with marine natural capital markets far less advanced than land-based natural capital.
Yet the potential is immense.
The total value of ocean-based natural capital is estimated at $24 trillion, while the value of the blue economy is set to reach $3 trillion in value by 2030, with as much as 90% of trade happening via the oceans.
Challenges with accurate measurement of carbon storage in marine ecosystems is seen as one of the key challenges holding back development of blue carbon projects, to protect ecosystems such as mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass.
The conservation of marine ecosystems is one of the main goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, whose national signatories have committed to protecting at least 30% of land and seas by 2030.
According to the Marine Conservation Institute, less than 3% of oceans are considered marine protected areas.
By Bryony Collins – bryony@carbon-pulse.com
