Finance guide to measuring biodiversity

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Together with the EU Finance@Biodiversity Community and the signatories of the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, we have developed a Guide to measuring biodiversity for financial institutions. As the loss of biodiversity becomes ever more urgent, financial institutions are looking for ways to quantify the impact of their finance and investment activities on biodiversity. The Guide on biodiversity measurement approaches provides a comprehensive overview of the biodiversity measurement tools that are currently in use and underway. The Guide will be presented in a webinar on April 1st, 2-3pm CET.

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Finance and climate adaptation

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A new visual story about climate adaptation highlights the opportunities for collaboration between financial institutions and the public sector. Based on 20 interviews with financial institutions and public sector bodies, we analysed the role of financial institutions in climate adaptation as part of our Finance and Climate Adaptation project. We have now delivered the final product: a visual story that highlights the actions that financial institutions can take to make its assets in the Netherlands more climate-proof, and how they can optimize their collaboration with the public sector.

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‘Climate Resilient City’ documentary highlights role of finance

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The second International Climate Adaptation Summit was held in the Netherlands on 25 and 26 January. The online event included the first screening of the documentary The Climate Resilient City Explained. NextGreen provided input for the documentary based on its analysis of action on climate adaptation in the financial sector.

The 25-minute documentary shows how cities can be made climate-resilient. This is done using examples and lessons learned from a number of Dutch cities, which concluded their City Deal Climate Adaptation with this documentary. The stories emphasize the importance of collaboration between municipalities, water boards, provinces, national government, citizens, companies and financial institutions. This is completely consistent with the results of the analysis that NextGreen has been working on together with Climate-Proof Together (Samen Klimaatbestendig).

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City of Utrecht’s ‘Rooftop Vision’

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Photo credit: Jan Knoop

The City of Utrecht has asked NextGreen to help it develop a ‘Rooftop Vision’ in 2021. With ‘no rooftop unused’ by 2050 as the overall goal, the municipality is working on a ‘Sustainable Rooftop Ambition’ document. Starting out from existing policy goals, a detailed ambition document will be drawn up to set out what the city’s rooftop landscape should look like. Internal dialogue and the participation of various stakeholders in the city should create an understanding of how and where energy rooftops (e.g. solar panels), green-blue rooftops (which help to reduce run-off), biodiverse rooftops and multifunctional rooftops can help us to cope with heat stress and flooding, the transition to renewable energy, and to improve biodiversity. Furthermore, the ambition document will provide guidelines for realising a sustainable rooftop landscape through a combination of policy instruments and innovative ways of financing.

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11 New signatories to the Pledge

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With 11 new signatories to the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, 2020 will close with a group of signatories consisting of 37 financial institutions from 13 different countries. This was celebrated at the European Business and Nature Summit (EBNS) on 9 December 2020.

During the opening session on 9 December, we welcomed 11 new signatories to the Pledge. The session was opened by EU Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness, and included key notes by CIOs from Allianz France, Federated Hermes and Deutsche Bank.

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Climate adaptation and the financial sector

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Kick-off: Climate Adaptation Assessment in the Finance Sector

What role can financial institutions play in making the Netherlands climate-robust, and what opportunities are there for collaboration with governments? Together with the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO), NextGreen has spoken to 20 financial institutions to analyse the playing field.

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Guidance on biodiversity for the financial sector

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Together with financial institutions and de Horde Advies, NextGreen has produced a Guidance document to accompany the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge. The Finance@Biodiversity Community, which initiated this Pledge, felt the need for an overview of developments and sources. The overview briefly describes risks and opportunities for financial institutions when it comes to biodiversity and explains each of the commitments. The Pledge signatories commit to Collaboration and knowledge sharing, Engaging with companies, Assessing impact, Setting targets and Reporting publicly on biodiversity impact by 2024 at the latest.

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Model for decision support

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Rooftop Garden Maandag Rotterdam Blaak. Design and realisation: Boekel Tuin en Landschap

In order to help municipalities and water boards to determine their policy mix to promote climate adaptation on private land, the working group decision support is developing a framework.

There are many policy tools that municipalities and water boards can use to promote climate adaptation on private land. And there are even more digital tools that are meant to facilitate the choice between the different policy tools. The working group decision support is therefore developing an overarching framework that will bring together these tools in a structured way.

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Launch Finance for Biodiversity Pledge

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On September 25 at 15:00 CEST, 26 financial institutions will launch their Finance for Biodiversity Pledge during the United Nations Nature for Life Hub. Don’t miss it! In the Pledge, the participating banks, investors and other financial institutions will commit to start working for biodiversity. They will also call upon other financial institutions and heads of state to do the same, so that together we can help reverse global biodiversity loss.

Behind the scenes at NextGreen, we are working hard together with Anita de Horde to prepare for this historic event. The new website is now online and a film maker is busy creating videos in which the CEOs of these institutions make their statements for the launch.

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NextGreen endorses the Green Recovery Statement

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Green Recovery Statement NextGreen

Together with more than 250 businesses, NextGreen has endorsed the Green Recovery Statement, which was launched last Friday. The Dutch signatories pledged their support for making sustainability the cornerstone of COVID-19 recovery plans. Led by Jan Peter Balkenende, chairman of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition (DSGC), and former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the statement was presented to Minister Sigrid Kaag on June 19th, also the day on which the European Council discussed the COVID-19 recovery plan.

NextGreen signed the Green Recovery Statement, stating:

“The time has come to accelerate transformative change jointly. Connecting business and governments, finance and NGOs, to align with the SDGs. We need to collaborate and focus together on transforming key economic processes, like procurement, pricing, taxing and advertisement regulation, and building resilience for the next crisis.”

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