JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer moderated the Festival’s second plenary panel on private initiatives for financing nature, guiding a discussion on how the private sector can help close the global financing gap for biodiversity and nature-based solutions.
The second NATURANCE Festival took place on 3–5 February 2026 in Brussels, bringing together policymakers, researchers, finance actors, and practitioners to explore insurance and investment opportunities for nature-based transformations.
The event fostered exchange across climate adaptation, finance, and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), highlighting emerging approaches, shared lessons, and pathways to scale up nature-positive action. As the final Festival in the series, it captured key insights and policy messages to guide future European work on nature-based finance and insurance.
Topics included:
- EU and private financing for nature-positive action
- Innovative insurance and risk-transfer models
- Data, valuation, and cost–benefit tools for NbS
- Investment readiness and capital mobilisation
- Policy, urban action, and citizen engagement
© NATURANCE
JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer moderated the second plenary panel on private initiatives for financing nature. The panel focused on the urgent need to close the biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) financing gap. According to UNEP’s State of Finance for Nature report, global investment in NbS is currently only about one‑third of what is needed to meet climate and biodiversity targets by 2030.
Both the panel and festival participants were asked whether the world is on track to fill this gap. A Mentimeter poll provided a clear response, over 95% answered “no” or “very unlikely.”
The discussion opened with an even more alarming finding from UNEP’s latest analysis: nature‑negative investments outweigh nature‑positive investments by a factor of thirty.
Panelists from EIOPA, GaiaSicura, the Italian Sustainable Investment Forum, ETH, and WWF underscored the urgent need for stronger regulation and shared ideas for enabling faster private‑sector action, including the development of global metrics, greater transparency, a shift in investor mindset, and mandatory nature‑based credits.
Moderator: JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer, IIASA
Panelists:
- Isabel Reuss - (Italian Sustainable Investment Forum)
- Will Butler (GaiaSicura)
- David N. Bresch (ETH Zurich)
- Koen Stuyck (WWF Switzerland)
- Verena Kraus (UNEP-FI)
- Ursula Bordas (EIOPA)
Day 1 – February 3, 2026
Day one highlighted the urgent need to scale finance for Nature-based Solutions, with EU policymakers and private-sector speakers calling for stronger pipelines, science-based foundations, and blended finance. The sessions outlined key challenges and priorities, setting the stage for more practical discussions in the days that followed.
For full videos, insights, and detailed outcomes, please visit the event page.
© NATURANCE
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