50 Investible Opportunities for a New Nature Economy 2026

Executive summary The nature-positive transition represents ~$10 trillion in annual opportunities by 2030, offering pathways to resilient growth and competitive advantage. Business leaders increasingly recognise that taking nature-positive action – such as tackling climate change, water stress or pollution – can not only build business resilience but also generate new opportunities. Yet capital flows remain deeply misaligned. In 2023, $7.3 trillion was invested in activities harmful to nature, vastly outpacing the $220 billion invested in nature-based solutions – mainly conservation finance. The gap is even more stark when considering the private sector, which accounted for the majority of nature- negative finance ($4.9 trillion), yet contributed just $23 billion to nature- based solutions – leaving the public sector to fund the remaining 90%.1 Nature-positive solutions can also be business- positive and investment-positive This financing gap represents both a profound systemic risk and a missed economic opportunity. The prevailing view of nature finance focuses mostly on conservation and restoration. However, this view needs to be broadened to include financing nature- positive business value chains across all sectors of the economy. Companies increasingly recognise that nature-positive business models can generate commercial value. Recent estimates suggest that the green economy more broadly accounted for nearly $8 trillion in listed equity market value in 2024 and has outperformed global equities by ~59% since 2008 – underscoring its investment potential.2 To finance the nature-positive transition while meeting risk-adjusted return requirements, financial institutions are looking for opportunities that combine positive environmental impact with a strong business case. Previous research by the World Economic Forum estimates that these opportunities could generate $10.1 trillion in annual business revenues and cost savings by 2030.350+ nature-positive investible opportunities across 13 sectors can generate commercial value This report’s analysis of the landscape of nature- positive transition activities and investments across sectors reveals a significant pipeline of commercial opportunities within corporate value-chains. The report highlights more than 50 such opportunities across 13 critical sectors, selected according to their impacts and dependencies on nature, as well as economic significance. The majority of these also deliver additional benefits, from climate mitigation to job creation and resilience-building. As they scale up, these opportunities have the potential to move from isolated interventions to industry-shaping transitions. Across sectors, companies are investing in nature- positive activities to leverage more sustainable operations and technologies, launch new sustainable products and back innovative approaches. By integrating any one of these opportunities into core business activities, firms can meaningfully reduce nature-negative impacts while making a positive business case to senior leadership and investors. Financial institutions can help many of these opportunities scale up using familiar tools and approaches. The opportunities identified in this report are suitable for a broad range of conventional and proven finance products. The financial industry is also innovating at pace to provide more specialist products for emerging opportunities. Five priority actions for financial institutions to support resilient, nature-positive economic growth Mobilizing capital at scale into this set of opportunities enables companies to accelerate the transition to a nature-positive economy while delivering resilient growth and risk-adjusted returns. To help get there, the report proposes five priority actions for financial institutions to make the most of their role: 50 Investible Opportunities for a New Nature Economy 5