Unlocking capital for nature: Office for Investment convenes investors, government and local leaders to drive delivery
Today, the Office for Investment (OfI) convened investors, nature projects and local and national government in Bristol.
Today, the Office for Investment (OfI) convened investors, nature projects and local and national government in Bristol to encourage innovative financing mechanisms, grow the market, and help nature projects attract investment.
A report published by the OfI, in partnership with the North Devon Biosphere, found that the UK’s natural capital and ecosystem services were becoming a strategic investment opportunity, but the market was still too fragmented and immature to attract capital at scale.
The CEO of the OfI, the Mayor of the West of England and Lloyds Banking Group hosted investors, nature recovery projects and government representatives in Bristol to explore how public and private investment could help unlock greater nature recovery.
Nature is part of the essential infrastructure on which a prosperous and resilient economy depends. We have an opportunity to deliver investment and growth in ways that strengthen the natural assets it relies on.
The UK is well positioned to lead in natural capital investment, and the opportunity now is to build on existing strengths. Government is working to accelerate the markets that drive investment in nature, with a particular focus on stimulating demand, so that investors can commit capital with confidence.
Nature recovery needs government, business and investors pulling in the same direction: clear rules and trusted markets from government, alongside action and investment from business.
Place-based partnerships could turn those shared interests into investable projects, using public action to help unlock private capital and deliver at greater scale. This event in the South-West showed what this looked like in practice, with investors, landowners and communities coming together to deliver local environmental priorities alongside economic growth.
Across the UK, investment is already driving nature recovery. Projects including the Western Forest, England’s first new national forest in a generation, showed what public and private investment could achieve at landscape scale.
A thriving natural environment is the critical infrastructure on which our economy depends, but decades of neglect and underinvestment have pushed it to breaking point.
The climate crisis is putting our ecosystem services under huge pressure, and we need to be better prepared for the challenges ahead. There has never been a more critical time to invest in nature, and natural capital is emerging as one of the defining investment themes of the 2030s.
Office for Investment CEO Parminder Kohli said:
There is a significant opportunity to unlock more private investment in nature. Our focus must be on helping promising nature recovery projects become investment-ready, while giving investors the confidence to deploy capital at scale.
The Office for Investment will continue to work with partners across the market to remove barriers, connect capital with opportunity and turn ambition into investment and long-term impact.
Mayor of the West of England Helen Godwin said:
People across the West of England are proud to live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, as well as in the natural home of new green jobs. We want our nature to thrive and for people to be able to enjoy experiencing it for generations to come, something my £5 million Nature Fund will help make a reality.
As the country’s fastest-growing regional economy and home to some of the new Western Forest, the environment is at the heart of our Growth Strategy. Nature recovery is an exciting opportunity in that work, alongside building new homes and better transport.
Lloyds Banking Group said:
At Lloyds Banking Group, we are committed to playing our part in the UK’s nature recovery. Our recent Built to Last report highlights how nature-based solutions can strengthen climate resilience while delivering wider economic, social and environmental benefits.
Realising that potential depends on strong public-private partnerships, bringing together local knowledge, public sector expertise and private capital to turn shared ambitions into investable projects. Which is why we are pleased to be supporting the Office for Investment and the West of England Combined Authority in bringing that approach to life in Bristol, exploring how together we can unlock nature finance across the South-West and share lessons for the wider UK.
Jamie Audsley, Director of the Western Forest, said:
We’ve been able to create England’s first new national forest in a generation, thanks to national and regional Government investment. Nature finance is vital to growing the forest to its full potential and events like this are key for bringing investors and nature organisations together to learn and develop an ambitious pipeline of projects to build resilience across the UK.
The new report from the OfI and the North Devon Biosphere can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-natural-capital-and-ecosystem-services-a-pathway-to-at-scale-investment-capital-flows.