Conference Agenda

ID: 179 / 4.04.5: 2

Nature finance: challenges and opportunities

Joseph William Bull¹, Nicola Ranger¹, Emma O'Donnell¹, Andrew Shaw², Michael Harfoot³

1 University of Oxford, United Kingdom; 2 Assimila; 3 Vizzuality

Focusing on ‘biodiversity finance’, our objective is to elicit opinions on the current challenges and opportunities for implementing EO to support nature finance mechanisms (e.g. credits, bonds, debt for nature swaps, investment portfolios).

We start by presenting an outline of (a) the state of nature finance, and (b) identified needs for scaling and monitoring/reporting on nature finance mechanisms. Then, we invite participants into groups to explore several topics:

• Outline of existing use of EO (especially biodiversity metrics and associated datasets) to meet MRV and other requirements for nature finance;

• Refinement, in which these existing approaches are discussed in terms of both current critiques, and by challenges associated with using them in different habitats/geographies; and,

• Consideration of opportunities for current and emerging EO methods that take us beyond these limitations

Back in plenary, we match the outcomes of smaller group discussions against recent reviews of challenges and opportunities for nature finance more broadly – discussing areas of overlap, and any major gaps. As part of this facilitated discussion, we look forward to opportunities associated with forthcoming launches (e.g. ESA CHIME 2029).

Expected outcomes: Workshop outcomes will be to map and rank current and forthcoming opportunities for EO to support nature finance applications; by suitability, feasibility, and desirability. The report would also discuss how these apply across geographies, and for the private vs the public sector, including reflection on models by which the wider community can interact across sectors.

The report will feed into the newly launching LEON project (January 2025), which seeks to match those approaches suggested by the EO community with the needs of the finance sector – so BioSpace25 comes at the ideal time in the emergence of this exciting new area of research.