Glasgow, Scotland – The Green Purposes Company experts are attending the UNFCCC COP26 climate summit taking place in Glasgow until Nov. 12 highlighting that as the cost of carbon hits a record high we won’t get to Net-Zero by 2030 without investing in nature and projects to ensure carbon sequestration.
The Green Purposes Company oversees the green mission of the Green Investment Bank, established by the UK Government in 2012 to accelerate the transition to a green economy.
It is estimated that the global need for biodiversity conservation financing will reach approximately $854 billion annually by 2030 in order to safeguard the natural environment. With current spending only around $130 billion per year, and predominantly provided by public and philanthropic sector organisations, private investment must be dramatically scaled to meet the over $700 billion annual financing gap.
Nature-based solutions (“NbS”) provide a rapidly growing opportunity to monetise and invest in activities to protect, sustainably manage, and restore ecosystems, that address societal challenges while simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.
Trevor Hutchings, Chair of the Trustees of the Green Purposes Company, said:
“Our social and economic wellbeing depends fundamentally on nature. Yet our investment in nature is not at anything like the scale needed to address environmental collapse and to meet net zero. It is seen as a niche area, an immature market, and without the financial returns necessary to attract mainstream investors. This needs to change, and to change now.
However, like low carbon before, and with the right actions by institutional investors and policy makers, we believe that investing in nature will become mainstream – the next global financial asset class.”
“Investing in Nature Based Solutions (NbS) is an emerging institutional asset class scaling with new investible solutions and a thriving nature-based market but investors must engage with the market to ensure that scale, impact quality and returns can be delivered in tandem, and policymakers must unlock the potential of this sector by promoting further policy and fiscal measures that encourage crucial investment”.
Spokespeople Available for interview at COP26 in Glasgow.
James Curran – Trustee of the Green Purposes Company.
James Curran was previously Chief Executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and, in that role, served on several Scottish Ministerial task groups including zero waste, hydronation, air quality, green growth, and biodiversity. He acted as a UK Government reviewer of the IPCC 4th climate change assessment report, and recently prepared a climate change plan for the Isle of Man Government. He was co-author of an expert panel report on fracking for the Chief Scientist Scotland and also a report on environmental governance in Scotland. He is chair of Climate Ready Clyde and was, until recently, chair of the James Hutton Institute. James is an Honorary Fellow of Scottish Environment LINK, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University.
Peter Young – Trustee of the Green Purposes Company.
Peter Young spent many years working with businesses and governments on green issues. He is chair of the International Standards Organisation Committee on Sustainable Finance (ISO/TC322) and the Strategic Advisory Group for the BSI programme of sustainable finance standards. He is co-founder of two third sector organisations promoting the case for the environment and sustainability – the Aldersgate Group and the Broadway Initiative. Peter is also a member of the Our Natural World Advisory Panel to Esmee Fairbairn, the advisory board of Queen Mary College’s School of Business and Management, and was the first independent trustee of The Wildlife Trusts 2014-2020.
