The contents of this document should not be perceived as investment advice.
Reading & references
Reports worth reading
This is why the European Central Bank says that destroying nature will destroy the economy
World Economic Forum (2023)
The report highlights biodiversity and ecosystem decline as a core macroeconomic and credit issue, stressing the need for financial institutions to integrate nature into risk assessment, lending, and sovereign analysis. It notes that nearly three-quarters of euro area bank lending goes to companies reliant on ecosystem services, meaning widespread nature loss could pose systemic risks to financial stability.
Net Zero: The Second Stage The need for quality in the carbon credit market
Octopus Capital (2025)
The report translates climate hazard science into sector-specific strategies to protect assets, supply chains, and earnings. It warns that without stronger resilience measures, companies could face earnings declines of around 7% by 2035. Designed as a practical guide for boards, it links adaptation investment directly to enterprise value and long-term competitiveness.
Business on the Edge: Building Industry Resilience to Climate Hazards, World Economic Forum
Octopus Capital (2025)
Based on a survey of UK business leaders, the report finds strong intent to use carbon credits but limited understanding of what credits are and how to assess quality. It highlights the need for better education and due diligence frameworks to build confidence, direct capital toward high-integrity projects, and ensure carbon markets support genuine progress toward net zero.
Climate Change Trade-Offs: What does it take to keep our world insurable?
Allianz Research (2024)
The report warns that a slow climate transition will leave parts of the real economy facing reduced insurance coverage and widening protection gaps. It frames insurability as a central economic and social challenge, highlighting the implications for pricing climate risk, policy design, and affordability trade-offs that will directly shape future cash flows and financial stability.
Planetary solvency–finding our balance with nature Global risk management for human prosperity
University of Exeter and Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (2025)
The report reframes climate and nature breakdown as a systemic “risk of ruin” and proposes a solvency-style framework for managing global environmental risks. It argues for integrating nature into board-level risk appetite and adopting scenarios that capture tail risks, positioning natural capital as fundamental to long-term economic and human prosperity.
Natural Capital Report 2024
Gresham House and Mallow Street (2024)
The report highlights rising institutional appetite for natural capital, with half of UK asset owners already investing or planning to do so within 18 months. Allocations are expected in the 3–5% range: 59% of investors would commit up to 3%, and a further third up to 5%. The study also finds strong interest in carbon and biodiversity credits, with a preference for generating credits through investments rather than purchasing them. Just over half (52%) would use credits to offset portfolio impacts, while 48% would sell them to capture returns.
The Rebalance Earth Guide to Nature-Based Solutions: Practical Infrastructure for a Changing World
Rebalance Earth (2025)
The report treats nature as infrastructure, offering practical, delivery-ready solutions across rivers, wetlands, woodlands, coasts, and urban drainage. Through case studies and clear implementation steps, it provides a field guide for turning catchments and natural assets into resilient, functional infrastructure that supports environmental and societal outcomes.
RETHINKING RESILIENCE: How a new era of extremes is changing how utilities invest
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025)
The report highlights how utilities are shifting investment priorities in response to intensifying climate extremes. Resilience-aligned spending is projected to rise from ~41% to ~46% by 2030, with guidance on directing capital toward smart networks, adaptive assets, and catchment-based solutions. Satellite data from GRACE underscores the increasing severity of wet and dry extremes, reinforcing the need for proactive adaptation.
Mainstreaming Natural Capital: Advancing the Global Agenda to Integrate Nature in Decision-Making
World Economic Forum (2025)
The report reviews three decades of progress in integrating natural capital into decision-making, identifies key barriers, and sets out five priority actions. These include aligning financial and natural capital accounting, enabling market mechanisms, and embedding nature considerations into governance and strategy. It provides a clear policy and institutional framework to support nature-aligned investments and decision-making globally.
Full reference list
Agri Investor (2025) South Yorkshire’s natural capital bet: A 40-year journey to the future. https://www.agriinvestor.com/south-yorkshires-natural-capital-bet-a-40-year-journey-to-the-future/ (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
Association of British Insurers (2025) Record UK flood insurance claims in 2024 – Rising costs and risks. https://www.unda.co.uk/news/record-uk-flood-insurance-claims-in-2024-rising-costs-and-risks/ (Accessed: September 12, 2025).
Bayer (2025) The Value of Pollinators To the Ecosystem and Our Economy. https://www.bayer.com/en/agriculture/article/economic-value-pollinators (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
BCG (2023) Moving Beyond Net Zero to Nature Positive. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/moving-beyond-net-zero-to-nature-positive (Accessed: September 2, 2025).
Bilal, A. and Kanzig, D.R. (2024) The Macroeconomic Impact of climate change: Global vs local temperature, Nber (National Bureau of Economic Research) Working Paper Series. report 32450. National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w32450 (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
Committee on Climate Change (2025) Scotland’s Carbon Budgets - Climate Change Committee. https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/scotlands-carbon-budgets/.
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 2021. Biodiversity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Policy Brief. Available at: https://www.cbd.int/development/doc/biodiversity-2030-agenda-policy-brief-en.pdf [Accessed 11 June 2025].
Dohle, M. and NetZero Investor (2024) 'Lessons on timber investing from Germany’s largest pension fund,' Netzeroinvestor, 16 October. https://www.netzeroinvestor.net/news-and-views/lessons-on-timber-investing-from-germanys-largest-pension-fund.
Environment Agency (2023) Building back better and mainstreaming property flood resilience. https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2023/05/22/building-back-better-and-mainstreaming-property-flood-resilience/ (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
Global AgInvesting (2024) Rest Super Makes its First Alternative Impact Investment in Cibus Fund II. https://globalaginvesting.com/rest-super-makes-its-first-alternative-impact-investment-in-cibus-fund-ii/ (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025) RETHINKING RESILIENCE, GWI2. https://amp.xylem.com/m/4cd9d0faf65084d2/original/rethinking-resilience.pdf (Accessed: September 12, 2025).
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025) RETHINKING RESILIENCE: How a new era of extremes is changing how utilities invest, Global Water Intelligence. "
Gresham House and Mallow Street (2024) Natural Capital Report 2024, Gresham House. https://greshamhouse.com/news-media/natural-capital-investments/ (Accessed: June 13, 2025).
Munich Re (2024) Natural disaster risks - Rising trend in losses | Munich Re. https://www.munichre.com/en/risks/natural-disasters.html (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
NetZero Investor (2024) Bayerische Versorgungskammer: Investing in timber as an inflation hedge. https://longviewnetworks.maglr.com/net-zero-investor-spark/bayerische-versorgungskammer-investing-in-timber-as-an-inflation-hedge.
NOAA (2023) Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/ (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
PensionsAge (2022) 'Essex Pension Fund commits £100m to carbon offset fund,' Pensions Age Magazine, 10 November. https://www.pensionsage.com/pa/Essex-pension-fund-announces-100m-anchor-commitment-in-carbon-offset-fund.php."
Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2019) Land use. https://ourworldindata.org/land-use#:~:text=At%20the%20global%20level%2C%20per,it%20was%20in%20the%201960s.
Rodell, M. et al. (2023) 'Changing intensity of hydroclimatic extreme events revealed by GRACE and GRACE-FO,' Nature Water, 1(3), pp. 241–248. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00040-5.
Room 151 (2022) Essex Pension Fund commits £100m to carbon offset impact fund. https://www.room151.co.uk/151-news/essex-pension-fund-commits-100m-to-carbon-offset-impact-fund/ (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
BloombergNEF (uses the same population, GDP and food demand assumptions in both scenarios. Total land demand comparison is illustrative as demand categories are not necessarily additive. Renewables are wind and solar, biofuels include plastics.
University of Exeter and Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (2025) Planetary solvency–Finding our balance with nature Global risk management for human prosperity, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. https://actuaries.org.uk/document-library/thought-leadership/thought-leadership-campaigns/climate-papers/planetary-solvency-finding-our-balance-with-nature/ (Accessed: June 13, 2025)
World Bank Group (2024) 'Global carbon pricing revenues top a record $100 billion,' World Bank, 21 May. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/05/21/global-carbon-pricing-revenues-top-a-record-100-billion.
World Economic Forum (2023) This is why the European Central Bank says that destroying nature will destroy the economy. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/06/nature-loss-financial-risk-biodiversity/ (Accessed: June 10, 2025)
World Economic Forum (2024) Business on the Edge: Building Industry Resilience to Climate Hazards, World Economic Forum. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Business_on_the_Edge_2024.pdf (Accessed: June 13, 2025).
World Economic Forum and PwC (2020) Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy, World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_New_Nature_Economy_Report_2020.pdf (Accessed: June 11, 2025).
La Caisse (2025) Environment. https://www.lacaisse.com/en/sir/2024/environment#section-5 (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
Ezpanded sources for graphs
Correlation matrix of real and traditional assets 1995-2024: Asset classes are represented by the following indexes: U.S. equities – S&P 500 Total Return; U.S. bonds – Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate; U.S. REITs – FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs; Gold – LBMA Gold Price; U.S. Annual Cropland – NCREIF Annual Cropland Index; U.S. Permanent Cropland – NCREIF Permanent Cropland Index; U.S. Timberland – NCREIF Timberland Property Index; U.K. Forestry – Gresham House internal benchmark. Inflation: UK CPI (ONS). FX: Bank of England GBP/USD, applied via standard pass-through to local returns. Portfolios are long-only and fully invested; where shown, institutional constraints are Equity ≥ 50%, Bonds ≥ 25%, Real assets (aggregate) ≤ 20%, and ≤ 5% per real asset. Mean–variance optimisation based on historical returns is illustrative and not investment advice; appraisal-based indices may understate volatility and smooth drawdowns.
The contents of this document should not be perceived as investment advice.
Reading & references
Reports worth reading
This is why the European Central Bank says that destroying nature will destroy the economy
World Economic Forum (2023)
The report highlights biodiversity and ecosystem decline as a core macroeconomic and credit issue, stressing the need for financial institutions to integrate nature into risk assessment, lending, and sovereign analysis. It notes that nearly three-quarters of euro area bank lending goes to companies reliant on ecosystem services, meaning widespread nature loss could pose systemic risks to financial stability.
Net Zero: The Second Stage The need for quality in the carbon credit market
Octopus Capital (2025)
The report translates climate hazard science into sector-specific strategies to protect assets, supply chains, and earnings. It warns that without stronger resilience measures, companies could face earnings declines of around 7% by 2035. Designed as a practical guide for boards, it links adaptation investment directly to enterprise value and long-term competitiveness.
Business on the Edge: Building Industry Resilience to Climate Hazards, World Economic Forum
Octopus Capital (2025)
Based on a survey of UK business leaders, the report finds strong intent to use carbon credits but limited understanding of what credits are and how to assess quality. It highlights the need for better education and due diligence frameworks to build confidence, direct capital toward high-integrity projects, and ensure carbon markets support genuine progress toward net zero.
Climate Change Trade-Offs: What does it take to keep our world insurable?
Allianz Research (2024)
The report warns that a slow climate transition will leave parts of the real economy facing reduced insurance coverage and widening protection gaps. It frames insurability as a central economic and social challenge, highlighting the implications for pricing climate risk, policy design, and affordability trade-offs that will directly shape future cash flows and financial stability.
Planetary solvency–finding our balance with nature Global risk management for human prosperity
University of Exeter and Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (2025)
The report reframes climate and nature breakdown as a systemic “risk of ruin” and proposes a solvency-style framework for managing global environmental risks. It argues for integrating nature into board-level risk appetite and adopting scenarios that capture tail risks, positioning natural capital as fundamental to long-term economic and human prosperity.
Natural Capital Report 2024
Gresham House and Mallow Street (2024)
The report highlights rising institutional appetite for natural capital, with half of UK asset owners already investing or planning to do so within 18 months. Allocations are expected in the 3–5% range: 59% of investors would commit up to 3%, and a further third up to 5%. The study also finds strong interest in carbon and biodiversity credits, with a preference for generating credits through investments rather than purchasing them. Just over half (52%) would use credits to offset portfolio impacts, while 48% would sell them to capture returns.
The Rebalance Earth Guide to Nature-Based Solutions: Practical Infrastructure for a Changing World
Rebalance Earth (2025)
The report treats nature as infrastructure, offering practical, delivery-ready solutions across rivers, wetlands, woodlands, coasts, and urban drainage. Through case studies and clear implementation steps, it provides a field guide for turning catchments and natural assets into resilient, functional infrastructure that supports environmental and societal outcomes.
RETHINKING RESILIENCE: How a new era of extremes is changing how utilities invest
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025)
The report highlights how utilities are shifting investment priorities in response to intensifying climate extremes. Resilience-aligned spending is projected to rise from ~41% to ~46% by 2030, with guidance on directing capital toward smart networks, adaptive assets, and catchment-based solutions. Satellite data from GRACE underscores the increasing severity of wet and dry extremes, reinforcing the need for proactive adaptation.
Mainstreaming Natural Capital: Advancing the Global Agenda to Integrate Nature in Decision-Making
World Economic Forum (2025)
The report reviews three decades of progress in integrating natural capital into decision-making, identifies key barriers, and sets out five priority actions. These include aligning financial and natural capital accounting, enabling market mechanisms, and embedding nature considerations into governance and strategy. It provides a clear policy and institutional framework to support nature-aligned investments and decision-making globally.
Full reference list
Agri Investor (2025) South Yorkshire’s natural capital bet: A 40-year journey to the future. https://www.agriinvestor.com/south-yorkshires-natural-capital-bet-a-40-year-journey-to-the-future/ (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
Association of British Insurers (2025) Record UK flood insurance claims in 2024 – Rising costs and risks. https://www.unda.co.uk/news/record-uk-flood-insurance-claims-in-2024-rising-costs-and-risks/ (Accessed: September 12, 2025).
Bayer (2025) The Value of Pollinators To the Ecosystem and Our Economy. https://www.bayer.com/en/agriculture/article/economic-value-pollinators (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
BCG (2023) Moving Beyond Net Zero to Nature Positive. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/moving-beyond-net-zero-to-nature-positive (Accessed: September 2, 2025).
Bilal, A. and Kanzig, D.R. (2024) The Macroeconomic Impact of climate change: Global vs local temperature, Nber (National Bureau of Economic Research) Working Paper Series. report 32450. National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w32450 (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
Committee on Climate Change (2025) Scotland’s Carbon Budgets - Climate Change Committee. https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/scotlands-carbon-budgets/.
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 2021. Biodiversity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Policy Brief. Available at: https://www.cbd.int/development/doc/biodiversity-2030-agenda-policy-brief-en.pdf [Accessed 11 June 2025].
Dohle, M. and NetZero Investor (2024) 'Lessons on timber investing from Germany’s largest pension fund,' Netzeroinvestor, 16 October. https://www.netzeroinvestor.net/news-and-views/lessons-on-timber-investing-from-germanys-largest-pension-fund.
Environment Agency (2023) Building back better and mainstreaming property flood resilience. https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2023/05/22/building-back-better-and-mainstreaming-property-flood-resilience/ (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
Global AgInvesting (2024) Rest Super Makes its First Alternative Impact Investment in Cibus Fund II. https://globalaginvesting.com/rest-super-makes-its-first-alternative-impact-investment-in-cibus-fund-ii/ (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025) RETHINKING RESILIENCE, GWI2. https://amp.xylem.com/m/4cd9d0faf65084d2/original/rethinking-resilience.pdf (Accessed: September 12, 2025).
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025) RETHINKING RESILIENCE: How a new era of extremes is changing how utilities invest, Global Water Intelligence. "
Gresham House and Mallow Street (2024) Natural Capital Report 2024, Gresham House. https://greshamhouse.com/news-media/natural-capital-investments/ (Accessed: June 13, 2025).
Munich Re (2024) Natural disaster risks - Rising trend in losses | Munich Re. https://www.munichre.com/en/risks/natural-disasters.html (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
NetZero Investor (2024) Bayerische Versorgungskammer: Investing in timber as an inflation hedge. https://longviewnetworks.maglr.com/net-zero-investor-spark/bayerische-versorgungskammer-investing-in-timber-as-an-inflation-hedge.
NOAA (2023) Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/ (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
PensionsAge (2022) 'Essex Pension Fund commits £100m to carbon offset fund,' Pensions Age Magazine, 10 November. https://www.pensionsage.com/pa/Essex-pension-fund-announces-100m-anchor-commitment-in-carbon-offset-fund.php."
Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2019) Land use. https://ourworldindata.org/land-use#:~:text=At%20the%20global%20level%2C%20per,it%20was%20in%20the%201960s.
Rodell, M. et al. (2023) 'Changing intensity of hydroclimatic extreme events revealed by GRACE and GRACE-FO,' Nature Water, 1(3), pp. 241–248. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00040-5.
Room 151 (2022) Essex Pension Fund commits £100m to carbon offset impact fund. https://www.room151.co.uk/151-news/essex-pension-fund-commits-100m-to-carbon-offset-impact-fund/ (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
BloombergNEF (uses the same population, GDP and food demand assumptions in both scenarios. Total land demand comparison is illustrative as demand categories are not necessarily additive. Renewables are wind and solar, biofuels include plastics.
University of Exeter and Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (2025) Planetary solvency–Finding our balance with nature Global risk management for human prosperity, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. https://actuaries.org.uk/document-library/thought-leadership/thought-leadership-campaigns/climate-papers/planetary-solvency-finding-our-balance-with-nature/ (Accessed: June 13, 2025)
World Bank Group (2024) 'Global carbon pricing revenues top a record $100 billion,' World Bank, 21 May. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/05/21/global-carbon-pricing-revenues-top-a-record-100-billion.
World Economic Forum (2023) This is why the European Central Bank says that destroying nature will destroy the economy. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/06/nature-loss-financial-risk-biodiversity/ (Accessed: June 10, 2025)
World Economic Forum (2024) Business on the Edge: Building Industry Resilience to Climate Hazards, World Economic Forum. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Business_on_the_Edge_2024.pdf (Accessed: June 13, 2025).
World Economic Forum and PwC (2020) Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy, World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_New_Nature_Economy_Report_2020.pdf (Accessed: June 11, 2025).
La Caisse (2025) Environment. https://www.lacaisse.com/en/sir/2024/environment#section-5 (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
Ezpanded sources for graphs
Correlation matrix of real and traditional assets 1995-2024: Asset classes are represented by the following indexes: U.S. equities – S&P 500 Total Return; U.S. bonds – Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate; U.S. REITs – FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs; Gold – LBMA Gold Price; U.S. Annual Cropland – NCREIF Annual Cropland Index; U.S. Permanent Cropland – NCREIF Permanent Cropland Index; U.S. Timberland – NCREIF Timberland Property Index; U.K. Forestry – Gresham House internal benchmark. Inflation: UK CPI (ONS). FX: Bank of England GBP/USD, applied via standard pass-through to local returns. Portfolios are long-only and fully invested; where shown, institutional constraints are Equity ≥ 50%, Bonds ≥ 25%, Real assets (aggregate) ≤ 20%, and ≤ 5% per real asset. Mean–variance optimisation based on historical returns is illustrative and not investment advice; appraisal-based indices may understate volatility and smooth drawdowns.
The contents of this document should not be perceived as investment advice.
Reading & references
Reports worth reading
This is why the European Central Bank says that destroying nature will destroy the economy
World Economic Forum (2023)
The report highlights biodiversity and ecosystem decline as a core macroeconomic and credit issue, stressing the need for financial institutions to integrate nature into risk assessment, lending, and sovereign analysis. It notes that nearly three-quarters of euro area bank lending goes to companies reliant on ecosystem services, meaning widespread nature loss could pose systemic risks to financial stability.
Net Zero: The Second Stage The need for quality in the carbon credit market
Octopus Capital (2025)
The report translates climate hazard science into sector-specific strategies to protect assets, supply chains, and earnings. It warns that without stronger resilience measures, companies could face earnings declines of around 7% by 2035. Designed as a practical guide for boards, it links adaptation investment directly to enterprise value and long-term competitiveness.
Business on the Edge: Building Industry Resilience to Climate Hazards
World Economic Forum (2024)
Based on a survey of UK business leaders, the report finds strong intent to use carbon credits but limited understanding of what credits are and how to assess quality. It highlights the need for better education and due diligence frameworks to build confidence, direct capital toward high-integrity projects, and ensure carbon markets support genuine progress toward net zero.
Climate Change Trade-Offs: What does it take to keep our world insurable?
Allianz Research (2024)
The report warns that a slow climate transition will leave parts of the real economy facing reduced insurance coverage and widening protection gaps. It frames insurability as a central economic and social challenge, highlighting the implications for pricing climate risk, policy design, and affordability trade-offs that will directly shape future cash flows and financial stability.
Planetary solvency–finding our balance with nature Global risk management for human prosperity
University of Exeter and Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (2025)
The report reframes climate and nature breakdown as a systemic “risk of ruin” and proposes a solvency-style framework for managing global environmental risks. It argues for integrating nature into board-level risk appetite and adopting scenarios that capture tail risks, positioning natural capital as fundamental to long-term economic and human prosperity.
Natural Capital Report 2024
Gresham House and Mallow Street (2024)
The report highlights rising institutional appetite for natural capital, with half of UK asset owners already investing or planning to do so within 18 months. Allocations are expected in the 3–5% range: 59% of investors would commit up to 3%, and a further third up to 5%. The study also finds strong interest in carbon and biodiversity credits, with a preference for generating credits through investments rather than purchasing them. Just over half (52%) would use credits to offset portfolio impacts, while 48% would sell them to capture returns.
The Rebalance Earth Guide to Nature-Based Solutions: Practical Infrastructure for a Changing World
Rebalance Earth (2025)
The report treats nature as infrastructure, offering practical, delivery-ready solutions across rivers, wetlands, woodlands, coasts, and urban drainage. Through case studies and clear implementation steps, it provides a field guide for turning catchments and natural assets into resilient, functional infrastructure that supports environmental and societal outcomes.
RETHINKING RESILIENCE: How a new era of extremes is changing how utilities invest
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025)
The report highlights how utilities are shifting investment priorities in response to intensifying climate extremes. Resilience-aligned spending is projected to rise from ~41% to ~46% by 2030, with guidance on directing capital toward smart networks, adaptive assets, and catchment-based solutions. Satellite data from GRACE underscores the increasing severity of wet and dry extremes, reinforcing the need for proactive adaptation.
Mainstreaming Natural Capital: Advancing the Global Agenda to Integrate Nature in Decision-Making
World Economic Forum (2025)
The report reviews three decades of progress in integrating natural capital into decision-making, identifies key barriers, and sets out five priority actions. These include aligning financial and natural capital accounting, enabling market mechanisms, and embedding nature considerations into governance and strategy. It provides a clear policy and institutional framework to support nature-aligned investments and decision-making globally.
Full reference list
Agri Investor (2025) South Yorkshire’s natural capital bet: A 40-year journey to the future. https://www.agriinvestor.com/south-yorkshires-natural-capital-bet-a-40-year-journey-to-the-future/ (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
Association of British Insurers (2025) Record UK flood insurance claims in 2024 – Rising costs and risks. https://www.unda.co.uk/news/record-uk-flood-insurance-claims-in-2024-rising-costs-and-risks/ (Accessed: September 12, 2025).
Bayer (2025) The Value of Pollinators To the Ecosystem and Our Economy. https://www.bayer.com/en/agriculture/article/economic-value-pollinators (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
BCG (2023) Moving Beyond Net Zero to Nature Positive. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/moving-beyond-net-zero-to-nature-positive (Accessed: September 2, 2025).
Bilal, A. and Kanzig, D.R. (2024) The Macroeconomic Impact of climate change: Global vs local temperature, Nber (National Bureau of Economic Research) Working Paper Series. report 32450. National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w32450 (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
Committee on Climate Change (2025) Scotland’s Carbon Budgets - Climate Change Committee. https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/scotlands-carbon-budgets/.
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 2021. Biodiversity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Policy Brief. Available at: https://www.cbd.int/development/doc/biodiversity-2030-agenda-policy-brief-en.pdf [Accessed 11 June 2025].
Dohle, M. and NetZero Investor (2024) 'Lessons on timber investing from Germany’s largest pension fund,' Netzeroinvestor, 16 October. https://www.netzeroinvestor.net/news-and-views/lessons-on-timber-investing-from-germanys-largest-pension-fund.
Environment Agency (2023) Building back better and mainstreaming property flood resilience. https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2023/05/22/building-back-better-and-mainstreaming-property-flood-resilience/ (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
Global AgInvesting (2024) Rest Super Makes its First Alternative Impact Investment in Cibus Fund II. https://globalaginvesting.com/rest-super-makes-its-first-alternative-impact-investment-in-cibus-fund-ii/ (Accessed: August 19, 2025).
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025) RETHINKING RESILIENCE, GWI2. https://amp.xylem.com/m/4cd9d0faf65084d2/original/rethinking-resilience.pdf (Accessed: September 12, 2025).
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem (2025) RETHINKING RESILIENCE: How a new era of extremes is changing how utilities invest, Global Water Intelligence. "
Gresham House and Mallow Street (2024) Natural Capital Report 2024, Gresham House. https://greshamhouse.com/news-media/natural-capital-investments/ (Accessed: June 13, 2025).
Munich Re (2024) Natural disaster risks - Rising trend in losses | Munich Re. https://www.munichre.com/en/risks/natural-disasters.html (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
NetZero Investor (2024) Bayerische Versorgungskammer: Investing in timber as an inflation hedge. https://longviewnetworks.maglr.com/net-zero-investor-spark/bayerische-versorgungskammer-investing-in-timber-as-an-inflation-hedge.
NOAA (2023) Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/ (Accessed: June 10, 2025).
PensionsAge (2022) 'Essex Pension Fund commits £100m to carbon offset fund,' Pensions Age Magazine, 10 November. https://www.pensionsage.com/pa/Essex-pension-fund-announces-100m-anchor-commitment-in-carbon-offset-fund.php."
Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2019) Land use. https://ourworldindata.org/land-use#:~:text=At%20the%20global%20level%2C%20per,it%20was%20in%20the%201960s.
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Expanded sources for graphs:
Correlation matrix of real and traditional assets 1995-2024: Asset classes are represented by the following indexes: U.S. equities – S&P 500 Total Return; U.S. bonds – Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate; U.S. REITs – FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs; Gold – LBMA Gold Price; U.S. Annual Cropland – NCREIF Annual Cropland Index; U.S. Permanent Cropland – NCREIF Permanent Cropland Index; U.S. Timberland – NCREIF Timberland Property Index; U.K. Forestry – Gresham House internal benchmark. Inflation: UK CPI (ONS). FX: Bank of England GBP/USD, applied via standard pass-through to local returns. Portfolios are long-only and fully invested; where shown, institutional constraints are Equity ≥ 50%, Bonds ≥ 25%, Real assets (aggregate) ≤ 20%, and ≤ 5% per real asset. Mean–variance optimisation based on historical returns is illustrative and not investment advice; appraisal-based indices may understate volatility and smooth drawdowns.