Blog — S&P Global Sustainable1 — 3 Feb, 2026
Improving the investment case for nature
Highlights
Pricing the benefits that society and business receive from natural capital and ecosystem services was a major topic of discussion at S&P Global Energy’s 2025 Global Carbon Markets Conference.
Investor demand for comparable and consistent metrics and data on nature is leading to new approaches to data collection, including the use of AI.
Innovative financing vehicles are helping attribute financial value to natural assets, with emerging tools like nature bonds and natural asset companies (NACs) encouraging investment in the protection and restoration of ecosystem services.
Investors, companies and other stakeholders are increasingly making the link between the ecosystem services nature provides and the importance of protecting those ecosystems to avoid risks to business operations. This was a major topic of discussion at S&P Global Energy’s 2025 Global Carbon Markets Conference, which featured for the first time a Nature and Biodiversity Zone where participants discussed how markets could begin to properly value the protection and restoration of nature. Key takeaways from the event include:
1. Improving methods for measuring nature
To price nature risks in their portfolios, investors require consistent and comparable disclosures. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is responding to that demand related to nature-related risks and opportunities by drawing on the work of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). The TNFD announced concurrently it would complete all technical work in progress, including the development of additional sector guidance, by the third quarter of 2026. TNFD CEO Tony Goldner told the conference that these decisions would provide more clarity and consistency around a set of reporting standards, including metrics, to drive greater scale in the market.
Goldner estimated that standards for nature reporting should be available 18 months to two years from now. He also said that in pursuit of better and more accessible decision-grade data, the TNFD is working toward building a nature data public facility. The facility aims to aggregate existing “state of nature” data from projects to reduce barriers to entry for both project developers and corporates interested in making investments.
Cain Blythe, Founder and CEO of CreditNature, underscored the need for “data fit for finance.” CreditNature is a platform that seeks to match corporate buyers with nature restoration projects and develops metrics that provide evidence of the project’s nature benefits and ecosystem uplift. Blythe described the company’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Condition Method, which has received full accreditation under the Accounting for Nature Standard. The framework includes metrics that quantify changes in ecosystem condition at the asset level and a tool for forecasting how ecosystem condition will change according to land restoration and management scenarios.
Some governments are also working to standardize metrics for naturae restoration so that improvements can be measured and requirements for nature preservation or improvement can be enforced. In 2021, the UK developed the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), which requires real estate development in England to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state. BNG requires at least a 10% increase in habitat value, measured with a statutory biodiversity metric tool that calculates the biodiversity value (in units) of habitats on the development site before any work starts. Developers must first avoid, then minimize, and then restore habitat impacts. After mitigation, developers must deliver a further 10% net gain in biodiversity value, measured in habitat units, which can be done either onsite, on a registered site nearby, or by purchasing government-backed credits that fund habitat creation or enhancement elsewhere.
Zoe Roth, an analyst at S&P Global Energy, explained the use of AI and digital twins to guide interventions that can be optimized for nature markets. Digital twins, which are already being used by cities globally for resilience planning, provide a digital replica of existing conditions and simulation paths for different scenarios. They could also be applied to ecosystems to measure potential change and impact from business activity.
2. Nature-based solutions and natural asset companies
Nature restoration or protection is often described as a secondary benefit of carbon projects; likewise, carbon sequestration can be a secondary benefit of a project whose primary goal is nature restoration. Nature-based solutions provide a benefit to nature and sequester carbon, TNFD’s Goldner said.
We know natural assets have immense value; if they can be recognized in markets and integrated into the financial system, this could yield investment in regenerative agriculture, conservation, and healthy ecosystems with abundant wildlife.
There is growing recognition that nature can function as an investable asset class, similar to other productive real assets whose value is linked to performance. A major challenge of making nature investable is attaching financial value to environmental services, whether that refers to macro benefits like carbon sequestration or to local benefits like protecting local freshwater supplies. Natural asset companies (NACs) are one solution being developed to address this challenge. The NAC model, developed by the Intrinsic Exchange Group, places the environmental service attributes of a nature-based asset into a legal structure that can then be traded on public markets. At scale, NACs could establish the benefits derived from nature as an investible asset class that is tradeable on a stock exchange.
NACs generate returns by investing capital to improve and maintain the ecological performance of natural assets over time. Returns are generated primarily through capital appreciation, driven by increased production of ecosystem services, growing demand for these services across the economy, nature’s role as a long-term store of value, and potential future cash flows from payments for ecosystem services or sustainable operations. Returns are therefore tied to improved ecological outcomes rather than short-term extraction. The first NAC to be launched is an Indigenous-led entity responsible for more than 1 million acres of boreal forest and a world-renowned salmon run.
NACs can also be combined with debt markets or other nature finance mechanisms, such as credits, in ways that support returns and reduce the cost of capital. This includes alignment with emerging nature-themed bonds and participation in structures such as debt-for-nature swaps, where capital is directed toward long-term ecological performance. These instruments reinforce ecological performance as a basis for financing while helping channel investment into nature restoration and preservation.
3. Nature stewardship and agriculture
At the conference we also heard about the need for a clearer protocol that integrates social and environmental dimensions of nature stewardship in a key sector for nature: agriculture.
Sustainable Food Trust CEO Patrick Holden described regenerative farming methods his farm uses, such as the adoption of cover cropping, and their ability to deliver better outcomes in terms of yield and resilience to extreme weather. Patrick highlighted initiatives such as the Soil Association Exchange, which directly measure impact areas including soil, carbon, biodiversity and water to provide natural capital payments to farmers.
Max Dougherty, Vice President of Business Development at Bayer Crop Science, explained how the pharmaceutical and biotech company is taking an ecosystem services and climate adaptation angle in its offerings to farmers. He explained that resilience and insurability are linked, and that with the appropriate tools it is possible to collect field data from farmers to assess changes in emissions due to the implementation of sustainable agriculture practices such as reduced tillage and cover cropping.
While both speakers noted that sustainable agriculture practices can deliver real-world impact to farmers by improving their crop and soil resilience to climate change, there was consensus that success depends on delivering financial rewards for outcomes. Farmers are compensated for the crops they grow and sell, but not for the ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration or improved soil health they can produce through regenerative practices. Pricing that hidden value could help transition agriculture in a direction that helps restore nature rather than only extract from it.
Looking ahead, we can expect that these themes will continue to grow. In terms of measurement, two significant areas of development will be the work of Google and the World Resources Institute to enhance the Google Earth Engine with nature data and the Landbanking Group’s open-source implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre’s Ecosystem Integrity Index, announced at the World Economic Forum’s 2026 Davos conference. We’re also watching the work of the Nature Positive Initiative, a coalition under the leadership of Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International, that is seeking to establish minimum metrics and thresholds for defining nature-positive investments.
Recognition of the value and strategic relevance of nature is also likely to grow with the launch of the World Economic Forum’s CEO Alliance on Nature. It’s a topic that we look forward to discussing further when we convene with leaders in the growing nature markets community later this year — please reach out to christopher.perceval@spglobal.com to learn more.