At the International Climate and Biodiversity Conference: Nature-based Solutions in Action, held March 6-7, and co-organised by the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects (HKILA) and the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Asia Pacific Region (APR), Stephen Suen, Director of Landscape Architecture and Nature-based Solutions Lead, Urbanism + Planning, AECOM HK; introduced the Natural Capital Initiative (NCI) and the Bintan Pilot.
Investing in nature does not have to be defined as an expense in the accounting books or regarded as an act of goodwill only. On the contrary, NCI proposes transforming natural capital into a financial asset with three steps:
- Enable nature uplift by creating high-performance ecosystems.
- Quantify natural capital through a simple and holistic set of metrics.
- Present and package results in an effective and attractive manner.
Instead of offsetting, NCI promotes in-setting, treating nature as an investment. Investors can acquire nature uplift in the form of digital equity, with a value corresponding to the total financial effort required to achieve the uplift. KPIs from the nature uplift can unlock more green finance potential and help assess ESG risks and opportunities, whilst diversifying investment decisions.
