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Howden and Pollination report explores the crucial role of insurance in unlocking nature finance

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  • The insurance sector has a critical role to play in unlocking finance for nature at pace and scale.
  • Through a set of priority interventions, the insurance sector can act now to help develop solutions that can reduce barriers to investments into nature.
  • Corporate and financial actors should engage and collaborate with the insurance sector early - consulting with advisors on the strategic use of insurance to de-risk nature-related investments and enhance deal economics to drive real capital flow. 

Ahead of CoP16 in Cali, Colombia, we have collaborated with Pollination to launch "Through the Wilderness: The Role of Insurance in Unlocking Nature Finance". The report explores how the insurance sector can drive a step change in the investments needed to tackle the interdependent global climate change and biodiversity crises.  

We are in a decisive decade for climate and nature. In order to limit warming to 1.5°C, halt biodiversity loss and achieve degradation neutrality, financing for nature will need to triple by 2030. 

The insurance sector has a critical role to play in unlocking finance for nature at pace and scale. The industry can maximise its impact by delivering risk transfer solutions across a range of emerging opportunity areas for nature finance, including environmental markets.  

To enable investment in nature, the sector can play four core roles:  

  1. Risk transfer to mobilise capital;  
  2. Protecting natural assets; 
  3. Enabling trading in environmental markets; 
  4. Governance. 

Growing experience in adapting and designing new products for regenerative agriculture, coastal, and forest systems demonstrate nascent but growing capacity across the sector. The industry has a significant opportunity to scale and adapt existing products, as well as deliver new solutions, to drive a step change in nature finance.