Nordea participated in EU Commissioner Jessika Roswall’s high-level roundtable on nature credits, sharing our thoughts from a financial perspective. As these types of credit instruments are gaining traction, Nordea sees it as a natural step to participate in the development of a potential tool to reverse the trends of biodiversity loss.
“It was a privilege to meet Commissioner Jessika Roswall at the Commission roundtable on nature credits and present the views of Nordea,” says Jarkko Syyrilä, Head of EU Affairs and Nordea’s office in Brussels.
“Organising such a roundtable between various stakeholders is a very good initiative from the Commission and something we have been advocating for. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a constructive dialogue between industry, civil society and policymakers to facilitate building a credible and transparent framework for nature credits which is a prerequisite for a market mechanism to start working,” continues Jarkko.
Nature, or biodiversity credits, is a tool or a mechanism that allows individuals and companies to invest in environmental projects contributing to a richer biodiversity. As more and more companies start to quantify their biodiversity impacts and the associated risks and dependencies, the need to finance the outcomes is rising.
“The market at this stage is in its infancy and there is a need to reassure and minimise risk and at the same time help ensuring a large enough supply of credits to make it actionable for market actors. The EU could help catalyse the demand side, and banks such as Nordea have an important role to play in scaling and supporting the development of a nature/biodiversity credit market,” says Jan Wärnbäck, Senior Environment Expert in Group Sustainability.
Nordea sees an interest in the Nordic region, both in terms of developments of voluntary certification systems and the national Finnish standard developed by the Finnish government. Therefore, we have joined the Swedish Biocredit Alliance as a member and are looking at national level in Finland to be active in developing the nature/biodiversity credit market in Finland and the Nordics.
Read more about the background for the roundtable.
The Global Biodiversity Framework aims to double biodiversity funding by 2025 and triple international biodiversity financing by 2030. In the EU, the new Nature Restoration Regulation outlines a plan to enhance natural capital.
The EU is committed to allocating 10% of its 2026-27 budget to biodiversity and exploring additional finance sources like nature credits.
Source: The European Commission
Productive and stable economies are dependent on sufficient natural resources and well-functioning ecosystems. In this explainer we dive into why biodiversity has become increasingly important to banks and the role it plays in our own sustainability strategy.
Read more