Biodiversity is playing an increasingly important role in financial decision-making and is becoming an integral part of how risk and value are assessed. This was evident when the Banque de France brought together stakeholders from the finance, insurance, and asset management sectors, along with central banks and researchers, for the workshop “Toward Nature-Positive Finance: Scientific Foundations for Action” in Paris on June 10.
Among those present were the researchers behind the IPBES reports, representatives from the French and German central banks, experts in both finance and biodiversity, and representatives from the European Commission. Ecogain attended the event and had the opportunity to discuss Sweden’s efforts to develop concrete methods for measuring biodiversity, such as through the creation of the area-based measurement model CLIMB.
An increasing number of central banks view biodiversity as integral to their supervisory and stability mandates, and the issue has become a permanent fixture on their agendas. This marks a clear shift: nature-related risks are increasingly being treated as financial risks.
At the same time, the European Commission is driving this development forward. Efforts to establish a market for carbon credits are progressing, with the aim of building the necessary infrastructure. Participants expressed a concrete interest in finding common approaches to managing nature-related risks, and expectations regarding what the financial sector can do have risen.
There is still a lot of work to be done, and the participants agreed on that. The industry needs greater consensus on metrics and methods, clearer regulatory frameworks that go beyond voluntary measures, and a closer link between academic research and how these issues are addressed in practice. Measurement methods are still in their infancy, and without common standards, the work risks remaining confined to pilot projects. A breakout session on environmental accounting demonstrated both the value of bridging the gap between theory and application and how far we still have to go to get there.
It is at this intersection—between ecological knowledge and the needs of the financial sector—that much of the work lies. The direction is clear, even if progress is still too slow.
Ecogain monitors issues related to nature-related financial risks, particularly in collaboration with the members of the Business & Biodiversity Sweden business network.
If you’d like to know how this work can benefit your business, please contact Tove Hägglund.
*The workshop was organized by the Banque de France in collaboration with Biodiversa+, the BiodivRestore Knowledge Hub, the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research, and the RESPIN project. The event was an official partner event of EU Green Week 2026.*
