Nature Credits Roadmap to reward nature-positive action

Laws and Policies

CCLW

CCLW national policies

Roadmap towards Nature Credits

Published

The Roadmap aims at helping close the current gap in ecological investment. Nature credits will serve as an additional, voluntary funding source to supplement existing public biodiversity financing and support actions that benefit nature. The Roadmap seeks to establish clear standards and credible certification processes for these nature-positive efforts, ensuring that nature credits are both effective and trustworthy, while minimising administrative hurdles for participants since it is built on existing standards.
The EU has pledged to dedicate 10% of its budget to biodiversity by 2026–2027 and to double its external biodiversity funding to €7 billion. Given the estimated €65 billion needed each year for biodiversity investments, combining public and private funding will be crucial to achieving it. Nature credits can incentivise private investment in nature-positive actions, recognising efforts beyond legal requirements.
Member States could use nature credits to acknowledge contributions to national and international biodiversity goals, such as those under the Nature Restoration Regulation or the Global Biodiversity Framework. These credits could also support sustainability reporting, green financing, and result-based payments.
To ensure credibility, strict criteria, strong governance, and transparency are essential. Certification ensures quality control and structures interventions, while credits turn validated improvements into tradable units.

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Financial support to help individuals manage the effects of unexpected events, securing their livelihoods and increasing the resilience of people and businesses to the changing climate. It’s especially vital in developing regions where everyday risks, climate-related weather extremes, or crop failures can push people into poverty. Without insurance, people may have to resort to selling assets or cutting consumption to cope with losses.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

Direct investments by the governments using public funds. This can be to support climate initiatives or integrate climate into other projects.

Activities of businesses and institutions that provide financial services and products to individuals and organisations.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

A tax advantage is an economic benefit applied to certain accounts or investments that are, by law, tax-reduced, tax-deferred, or tax-free. This can apply to investments in areas such as green energy projects or the agricultural sector, where tax advantages can help manage financial risks.

Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

Actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience of societies and the economy to climate change.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

A financial institution that manages a country's currency and can promote climate-related initiatives through green monetary policy and other means.

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Climate change impacts our society by disrupting the natural, economic and social systems we depend on. Physical hazards and underlying vulnerabilities can lead to increased resource competition for food and water, which can heighten the risk of conflict.

A loan is a policy instrument where funds are provided to a borrower with the expectation of repaying the principal plus interest.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Codes and standards are regulatory instruments that specify minimum standards to protect health and safety. This ranges from performance standards, which prescribe outcomes while allowing flexibility to achieve compliance, to the more prescriptive approach of technology-specific standards.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.