50 Investible Opportunities for a New Nature Economy 2026

Three myths about nature finance BOX 2 Myth 1: Nature-positive investments do not generate market-competitive returns and are only relevant to impact investing and concessional finance. Reality: Nature can also be a core component of investing in business resilience, operational improvements and new revenue streams. Recent market performance of nature- positive investments is encouraging. The overall green economy, including clean water and recycling services, 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.7Myth 2: Nature-positive investments only apply to biodiversity-rich ecosystems, such as forests and farmland, and are distinct from other sustainable finance (e.g. climate, circularity, blue finance). Reality: Nature-positive investments address all five drivers of nature loss: climate change, land/ocean- use change, overexploitation of natural resources, pollution and invasive species. Nature loss originates not only in forests and farms, but also from industrial activities, farming and housing. Myth 3: Nature-positive investments are primarily focused on conservation and restoration activities. Reality: 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.8 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. Closing this gap requires redirecting corporate capital expenditure from nature-negative to nature-positive activities. Financial institutions have a pivotal role as providers of finance and de- risking mechanisms – and the potential for private investment is significant. Banks, asset managers and insurers are increasingly integrating nature into their decision-making and engaging with clients and portfolio companies to understand where they stand on nature. In April 2025, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Oliver Wyman and 30 financial institutions, published Nature Positive: Corporate Assessment Guide for Financial Institutions with practical guidance to support this endeavour. Financial institutions have a pivotal role as providers of finance and de-risking mechanisms. However, many financial institutions have found it challenging to understand how “nature-positive finance” can achieve sufficient returns and are seeking guidance on specific investible opportunities that are “win-win” for business and the planet. In response to this need, the Forum’s analysis across business, finance and innovation landscapes has uncovered a significant pipeline of 50+ investible opportunities within core business operations and supply chains across sectors that contribute to nature-positive goals. By engaging with these opportunities, leaders can build their “nature fluency” – an institutional capacity to understand nature- related risks and opportunities as routinely and credibly as they do climate, credit or market risk – and embed nature into mainstream finance. These opportunities vary in terms of their technical maturity, capital intensity and scalability – with variation in suitability for specific types of company, as well as different financing and de-risking needs. They fall into four categories, reflecting these characteristics (see Figure 5): –Operational uplifts are well understood operational improvements that deliver efficiency gains and risk reduction with shorter payback periods. They are often smaller in scale and require less financing. –Scalable opportunities have demonstrated viability and consumer appetite, but they require greater supply or demand certainty and de- risking mechanisms to increase investment and help them scale up. –Emerging innovations are early-stage ventures with significant transformational potential, but they require staged investment to reach technical and commercial maturity. –Ecosystem opportunities depend on coordinated action across value chains to aggregate supply, demand, data and infrastructure. They require various types of financing and structures which accommodate collaboration to help them scale up. 50 Investible Opportunities for a New Nature Economy 8