Australian insights
Nature positive roadmap(Opens in a new tab/window)
The Green Building Council of Australia has published(Opens in a new tab/window) its Nature Positive Roadmap for the built environment. With construction products and services accounting for 22% of Australia’s consumption-based extinction footprint, it provides a practical framework to guide decision making. The roadmap sets out targets and timeframes to help all actors ensure new developments contribute to emerging goals for nature, while providing clear direction to support leadership across the industry. It is built around five principles that define the core areas for action for new developments, including driving circularity, choosing low-impact materials, and investing in nature. To ensure action addresses the full nature footprint of development, the targets address three scales of impact: onsite, near site and supply chain. The roadmap supports place-based approaches and recommends respectful partnerships and engagement with First Nations communities. Organisations in the built environment sector can use the roadmap to begin embedding nature into their business practices as the roadmap aligns with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure’s framework. The roadmap also outlines the Nature Positive Pathway and progressive requirements for Green Star ratings.
Strengthening the case for nature(Opens in a new tab/window)
The Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA), with the support of Cyan Ventures, has developed(Opens in a new tab/window) Australia’s first Nature Spend Tracker. In FY25, Australia spent approximately $1.5 billion to protect, restore and manage nature. Public sector funding dominates, accounting for the vast majority of expenditure each year. ALCA has shared project resources on its website, including:
- the Nature Spend Tracker(Opens in a new tab/window) (the full data set)
- the Tracker Insights Summary (Opens in a new tab/window)(summary for those wanting key insights only); and
- the Case for Nature Report(Opens in a new tab/window) (synthesises existing evidence on the case for nature)
At the intersection of nature and business(Opens in a new tab/window)
The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) published(Opens in a new tab/window) an article that considers two international reports published in 2026 and provides insights for boards on why nature loss matters and the interconnection between climate change and nature.
The first report, the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report, analyses global risks through three timeframes to support decision-makers in balancing current crises and longer-term priorities. The 2026 report places the risk of biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse over a 10-year period second only to extreme weather events.
The second report, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) summary for policy makers provides an assessment of how business and biodiversity interact. The IPBES assessment was aimed and businesses and provides boards with a useful guide for reflecting on the role and impact of their organisation on nature. By reducing harmful impacts, it creates more room to manage dependencies constructively.
The AICD article highlights that disclosure requirements on nature and biodiversity will almost certainly be mandated at various levels of government within the next decade. Rather than being overwhelmed by the complexity of frameworks, it suggests engagement at a strategic level provides a sound starting point.
Advancing Priority Actions on Financing Adaptation and Resilience(Opens in a new tab/window)
The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute prepared(Opens in a new tab/window) a background paper ahead of its presentation at Sydney Climate Action Week (9-15 March 2026) on the priority actions need to advance financing for adaptation and resilience. The paper highlights that advancing adaptation finance requires improved financing of avoided losses and long-term system benefits, common market infrastructure, mobilisation of capital including through blended finance, aggregation and pipeline development. According to the Insurance Council of Australia’s 2025 statistics, 97% of disaster related expenditure in Australia has been directed towards recovery rather than mitigation. The paper provides a number of recommendations including, expansion of the Australian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy to include sector-specific adaptation and resilience criteria and for the development of resilience-linked bonds and adaptation-aligned loan structures that reward risk reduction.
Three-year research initiative transforms carbon estimation in Australian rangelands(Opens in a new tab/window)
Food Agility has reported(Opens in a new tab/window) on a collaborative research project over three years that sampled soil from 908 sites across AACo properties in the Northern Territory and Queensland. The research found there is a greater potential to store carbon in rangelands than previously thought, with on the ground management decisions helping drive those outcomes, while also boosting the productive capacity of the landscapes. The findings have the potential to reshape thinking around carbon sequestration in rangelands, which cover around three quarters of Australia’s landmass. Food Agility’s Chief Scientist, Professor David Lamb, noted that the research confirmed that adopting sustainable land management practices accrues significant benefit for livestock producers and land managers seeking to boost productivity and profitability in our extensive rangeland. Head of Environment and Sustainability at AACo, Naomi Wilson, said the project delivered positive outcomes that could be factored into the company’s broader nature-led approach to beef production.
International insights
Nature on the Balance Sheet Initiative(Opens in a new tab/window)
Capitals Coalition has published(Opens in a new tab/window) a report on the Nature on the Balance Sheet Initiative progress against the Roadmap published in mid-2025. The initiative seeks to integrate natural capital into mainstream financial and economic decision making. The progress report highlights early proof points that confirm natural capital assessment, accounting, and financial recognition can strengthen operational resilience, inform investment decisions and reshape macro fiscal stability. Companies like Belterra and Vale Base Metals, asset managers such as Manulife Investment Management, and national level pilots in Uganda illustrate the feasibility and benefits of embedding nature considerations in decisions. However, systemic friction in the Roadmap persists. Market failures, particularly the lack of financial recognition for resilience benefits, continue to distort incentives.
Nature expectations(Opens in a new tab/window)
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), one of the world’s largest funds that has a small stake in around 7,200 companies globally, has shared(Opens in a new tab/window) its nature expectations. The expectations, which are the foundation of NBIM's engagement activities and inform its investment analysis and risk management, are aimed at companies in its portfolio whose activities or value chains depend on or affect land, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. NBIM views nature-related and climate risks as integrated challenges and expects companies to develop approaches that recognise the interdependence between nature and climate action. NBIM's nature expectations include eight core expectations that apply to all companies. These include board oversight, strategy integration, assessment and reporting, setting targets and action plans, and responsible engagement.
50 investible opportunities for a new nature economy(Opens in a new tab/window)
The World Economic Forum’s report(Opens in a new tab/window) highlights that nature positive transitions represents around US$10 trillion in annual opportunities by 2030, offering pathways to resilient growth and competitive advantage. Nature positive action, such as addressing climate change, water stress or pollution, can both build business resilience and generate new opportunities. The report identifies more than 50 commercially viable, investible opportunities across 13 key sectors, showing that reducing nature‑related impacts can also deliver cost savings, new revenues and competitive advantage for companies. The report also recommends five priority actions for financial institutions, including recommendations to use existing net zero climate strategy and governance as the entry point for nature, and to use existing financial products to finance nature positive opportunities rather than defaulting to complex bespoke structures. The report underscores the investment potential by highlighting that overall, the green economy has outperformed global equities by around 59% since 2008.
H&M Group adopts science-based targets for land(Opens in a new tab/window)
H&M Group has established(Opens in a new tab/window) independently validated science-based targets for their nature-related impacts on land. The targets, which were adopted under the guidance of the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) and follow H&M Group’s participating in SBTN’s pilot program in 2023 and 2024, focus on avoiding land conversion, reducing land footprint and engaging in priority landscapes. H&M has set a target for 100% sustainably sourced material and to increase the share of recycled material to 50% by 2030. H&M has partnered with WWF on priority landscapes projects, with a focus on cotton and wool, where it is a priority to support the transition to agricultural practices that aim to improve soil health, water retention and biodiversity.
Connecting nature, climate and capital(Opens in a new tab/window)
The Bank of New Zealand, Deloitte and The Nature Conservancy have published(Opens in a new tab/window) a report that examines how nature‑based carbon and biodiversity credit markets can mobilise private capital to support climate action, biodiversity restoration and community outcomes in Aotearoa New Zealand. It finds that global demand for high-integrity nature‑based carbon credits could reach US$20 billion by 2030, with biodiversity credits growing to around US$2 billion, creating a significant opportunity for New Zealand to attract premium international investment. The analysis emphasises that future demand will favour verified, high-integrity credits that demonstrate robust environmental outcomes alongside social and cultural benefits, including Indigenous leadership and benefit‑sharing. However, fragmented standards, evolving regulation, and uncertainty around corporate claims currently limit investor confidence and market scale. The report concludes that coordinated action by government, business, finance, NGOs and intermediaries could position New Zealand as a global supplier of trusted nature‑based credits, delivering long‑term climate, biodiversity and economic benefits
Breaking Down Silos: Navigating the intersection of environmental and social risks for investors(Opens in a new tab/window)
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s Investment Leaders Group show(Opens in a new tab/window) how overlapping climate, geopolitical and social stresses amplify financial risk in ways traditional risk models fail to capture, highlighting the need for integrated risk frameworks that assess environmental and social dynamics together. The report finds that investing in adaptation and resilience, regenerative agriculture and inclusive supply chains often pays for itself many times over, sometimes delivering two to ten times the value of the original investment.
ISSB Agenda Papers(Opens in a new tab/window)
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has released (Opens in a new tab/window)four staff papers regarding the Nature-related Disclosures project (previously known as the Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services project) ahead of its 25-26 March 2026 meeting. The first paper relates to metrics for nature-related disclosures. The paper notes that investors primarily engage with nature-related information at an industry or sector-specific level and recommends that any nature-related ISSB Standards or guidance refer to the SASB standards as a source of industry-specific metrics. The second and third papers relate to nature-related transition plans. Analysis finds that both preparers and users view nature transition plans as nascent, but investors recognise them as important for assessing future risks and opportunities. The assessment recommends elaboration of IFRS S1 general requirements, rather than changing specific references to transition plans in IFRS S2. The fourth paper relates to nature-related targets, and recommends including incremental guidance on nature-related targets, including an incremental requirement for entities to disclose whether and how nature-related targets have been informed by applicable laws and regulations.
Sustainability Reporting After the EU Omnibus (Opens in a new tab/window)
An Osapiens survey(Opens in a new tab/window) has found that 90% of companies that are no longer mandated to report on sustainability in the EU (noting the Omnibus package significantly reduced the number of companies required to report) are planning to maintain or even expand their sustainability reporting. The survey found that sustainability reporting has moved beyond compliance, with companies already integrating sustainability data into the broader corporate reporting infrastructure and embedding the data into their assessments of business risk and decision-making processes.
Uncover Hidden Risks in Your Supply Chain(Opens in a new tab/window)
Natcap has launched(Opens in a new tab/window) its Agricultural Commodity Tracing Tool to reveal where global agricultural commodities are actually produced. Natcap uses global production and crop data to provide credible, data driven estimates of origin at the sub-regional level. Natcap suggests using the tool to identify geographic hotspots for nature risks in supply chains, to prioritise suppliers or regions for targeted engagement and mitigation, and to allocate resources across your supply chain to generate the highest return on investment.
Natcap recently hosted a webinar on how companies are navigating the data challenges in supply chains. Watch the webinar replay here(Opens in a new tab/window).
Can a 'Beijing-Brasília effect' help end deforestation?(Opens in a new tab/window)
Trase has shared(Opens in a new tab/window) its insights that China and Brazil’s agricultural trade relationship, worth nearly US$47 billion annually, has leverage over global deforestation outcomes, as it accounts for around 25% of deforestation risk linked to international commodity trade. Trase introduces the concept of a “Beijing‑Brasília effect,” whereby coordinated bilateral action between the two countries could reduce deforestation while safeguarding food security and economic stability. The analysis shows that deforestation risk is concentrated in a relatively small number of producing regions, with 73 of the 1,500 Brazilian municipalities suppling soy to China accounting for 75% of the total deforestation risk, making targeted interventions both feasible and scalable. Trase concludes the Brazil-China partnership could act as a powerful precedent for other developing nations to advance a joint sustainable-trade agenda and to strengthen South-South cooperation.