Top 3 Trends for Nature-Based Investments in 2024

2023 was a dynamic year for nature-based investments, which PUR called the ‘Year of Integrity’. This recognizes that companies are making stronger climate commitments than ever before, beyond their carbon footprint—such as restoring biodiversity and regenerating soils.

Going forward, we see 2024 as the ‘Year of Maturity’. Last year, PUR helped to advance maturity in climate action from corporations—prioritizing transformations of their entire value chain, rather than singular ‘one-time’ projects.

PUR’s projects align with leading industry standards, which require companies to increase accountability through science-based commitments, farmer-centric design, and long-term monitoring of nature-based initiatives.

In 2024, PUR is advancing climate strategies and nature-based goals for corporations, based on the top 3 industry trends:

NEW FRAMEWORKS FOR MEASURING IMPACT ON BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity became a major industry focus in 2023, and will continue gaining prominence in 2024. Restoring global biodiversity is essential for the resilience of supply chains and the viability of corporate operations.

Without biodiversity, the World Economic Forum estimates that $44 trillion of economic value generation—over half the world’s total GDP—is potentially at risk, due to the dependence of business on nature and its services.

New global initiatives are creating opportunities for corporate impact on biodiversity, including:

• United Nations’ Global Biodiversity Framework—which aims to restore 30% of all degraded ecosystems, while conserving 30% of the world’s land and oceans, by 2030.
• Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), which is currently engaging its first cohort of pilot testing companies, focusing on science-based targets for freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems.
• Verra and Plan Vivo, which have entered the pilot phase for their nature-crediting methodologies.

“With effective progress on governance, global demand for voluntary biodiversity credits could reach $2 billion in 2030 and $69 billion by 2050.” (World Economic Forum).

To support the scale-up of biodiversity initiatives, PUR is developing new capacities in Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of biodiversity outcomes in 2024—aiming to provide more accurate evaluations of companies’ impact to meet evolving international standards.

UPDATING INDUSTRY STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS RELATED TO FOREST, LAND AND AGRICULTURE (FLAG)

In 2023, prominent climate initiatives have urged corporations to set new and ambitious targets. As the Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) sector represents roughly 24% of global emissions, it’s essential for companies to make commitments to achieve a lower-carbon future, backed up by measurable outcomes.

After being live for one year, the FLAG Guidance from Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has validated land-related emissions reduction targets for many companies. After gathering feedback from stakeholders and conducting an internal review, SBTi has provided updates for 2024 that will increase accessibility, transparency, and understanding of the FLAG Guidance. Here are three of the key updates that are important for corporations to know:

• Companies must now meet their science-based targets separately for FLAG scopes 1 and 3 of their GHG inventory.
• Individual commodity sub-targets must now be met separately, to reduce emissions in the most pertinent parts of the value chain.
• Updates to the expected level of data granularity, including information on FLAG emissions per commodity and region.

In 2024, we are also anticipating the fully updated Land Sector and Removals Guidance from GHG Protocol. Their publication delay has created a challenging gap for project developers, who have been hesitant to launch projects in the absence of clear guidelines for measuring and reporting outcomes.

This has led to private-sector actors, such as the Value Change Initiative (VCI), taking the initiative to develop credible accounting principles for Scope 3 emission reductions. However, VCI’s resources will need to be updated to align with the GHG Protocol, when it publishes the new guidance later this year.

ATTRIBUTION OF OUTCOMES FOR COMPANIES INVESTING WITHIN THE SAME LANDSCAPE

As more companies become involved in nature-based solutions and carbon sequestration, the issue of “attribution” will need to be explicitly addressed in 2024.

In other words, if multiple companies are participating in ecosystem restoration within the same landscape, how are the project outcomes —including carbon credits—“attributed” to each participant?

PUR’s landscape-level approach ensures that outcome attribution is clear for all participating stakeholders. Through a variety of proven models—including agroforestry, reforestation, regenerative agriculture, forest conservation, and marine restoration—we can generate strong impacts for farmers, clients, and agricultural ecosystems, including:

• On-farm carbon assets to meet science-based targets within clients’ value chain.
• Off-farm carbon credits that remain within the same landscape, around the farm. 
• Environmental co-benefits beyond carbon, enhancing the resilience of farmland through: forest corridors that increase biodiversity, preserving watersheds to protect key ecosystem services, planting native tree species that restore soils, and more.

In 2024, our team will continue developing innovative strategies to maximize the outcomes of nature-based interventions—enabling multiple stakeholders to invest confidently within the same landscape, while creating co-benefits for local producers and ecosystems.

ELEVATING YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT WITH PUR

At PUR, our priority is creating credible, measurable results that directly benefit farming communities and their local ecosystems; while also achieving the climate goals, science-based targets, and nature-positive impacts of our global clients.

PUR expands the scope of each project to encompass additional co-benefits beyond carbon sequestration—including biodiversity, soil health, water preservation, and farmer livelihoods.

Moving forward, corporations must continuously adapt to new standards of environmental excellence, developing nature-based solutions and carbon programs that are directly linked to their business. This will ensure they are driving multiple benefits to their operations, the communities they source from, and the ecosystems they fundamentally depend upon.

PUR is calling 2024 the “Year of Maturity”. What do you think will be the biggest trends of the year?