50 Investible Opportunities for a New Nature Economy 2026

Introduction Companies and financial institutions increasingly integrate nature into their decision-making, but are seeking guidance on specific investible opportunities. Healthy natural systems underpin the global economy. Most companies depend on reliable water supplies, fertile soils, biomass and ecosystem services such as pollination and flood protection. Nature-related risks are already visible in company financials: volatile input costs, operational disruption from droughts and floods, tighter permitting and compliance, legal exposure and reputational pressure. Yet, while investment in conserving and protecting nature – for example, from the impacts of climate change, water stress or pollution – can build critical resilience for both business and society, 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, which was mainly conservation finance. The gap is even starker 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, such as biodiversity credits and biodiversity-related bonds and funds.4 This imbalance reflects common barriers: insufficient understanding of business impacts on nature, unclear nature-positive business cases for corporate leaders, environmental externalities that are not priced-in, fragmented project pipelines, challenges developing key performance indicators (KPIs) and verification practices, and inconsistent labelling. The result is a financing gap that creates systemic risk and leaves value on the table. Companies increasingly recognise that nature-positive business models can generate commercial value. Yet opportunities to reduce operating costs, protect supply chains and access new markets go unfunded, even when technologies or approaches are already available. Transitioning the $4.9 trillion from nature-negative to nature-positive financial flows requires not only increasing investment in nature- based solutions but also broadening the horizons of what “nature finance” is understood to be. Nature finance is rapidly gaining traction as a pivotal component of investment portfolios, yet several misconceptions persist. Clarifying these myths is critical to unlocking the full potential of nature- positive capital flows. Nature-positive investment is not limited to funding conservation or restoration alone. It also covers nature recovery finance for strategies that actively reduce harm and pressure across value chains.6 This includes investments in operational changes that mitigate negative impacts at industrial sites, enhance water and resource efficiency in factories, promote sustainable sourcing in agriculture and support circular practices that decouple economic growth from environmental degradation (see Box 2).$ 7.3 trillion invested into nature-negative activities in 2023. What is nature positive? Halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 BOX 1 Businesses and financial institutions are increasingly speaking about “nature positive”, in addition to “net zero”, but it can be unclear what this term means. “Nature positive” is a global societal goal defined as: “halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 on a 2020 baseline and achieve full recovery by 2050”.5 It is often associated with the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF lays out a vision of a world living in harmony with nature and sets 23 global targets for 2030, including targets to reduce the negative impacts of business on nature and mobilize at least $200 billion per year for biodiversity. However, the term itself does not feature in the GBF and it is important to note that “nature positive” is a global goal for the overall economy. When this report uses the term “nature-positive opportunity” as shorthand, it indicates that an opportunity can, if deployed appropriately, contribute to the global nature-positive goal. 50 Investible Opportunities for a New Nature Economy 7