16 July 2026

Press Release

For immediate release

UK closer to crowding in private finance for nature

The UK's ability to crowd in private investment to restore and protect nature came a step closer today when WWF, the Green Finance Institute (GFI) and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) set out how the UK Government and businesses can prepare Nature-Positive Transition Pathways (NPPs).

This is a world-leading initiative for embedding nature and environmental targets into economic planning and business decision-making. These targets are crucial for building the UK economy's resilience to growing environmental threats, such as flooding, droughts, and water and food shortages.

GFI, WWF, and UKCEH have worked with the UK Government and more than 60 businesses and financial institutions to develop this methodology, ensuring NPPs are useful, ambitious, and practical. The report sets out how NPPs will be produced and how they will guide sectors in achieving environmental targets.

Part of the UK Government's Environmental Improvement Plan, these pathways set out how each sector of the UK economy can contribute to meeting the Government's environmental targets, such as cutting pollution, increasing reforestation, and reducing waste and improving recycling.

Crucially, Nature-Positive Transition Pathways give investors the clarity they need to invest in nature and nature-friendly technologies and business models that will underpin business resilience and growth going forward. They provide a practical bridge between national nature targets and real-economy delivery, helping to create a shared understanding of what delivery of those targets looks like in practice. By identifying the actions, investments, and enabling conditions required across different sectors, NPPs can help create a pipeline of investable opportunities capable of attracting private capital at the scale needed to deliver the UK's nature ambitions.

Sonya Likhtman, Stewardship Director, Federated Hermes Limited – “Realising the transition across sectors is critical for securing resilience, stability and future commercial opportunities, whilst contributing towards halting and reversing nature loss. Nature-positive transition pathways are a practical step towards setting out how business models across sectors must adapt to meet economic and environmental goals. They can point to the policy and regulatory levers required to enable the transition, and provide much-needed clarity and confidence across the market. We are fully supportive of this work.”

Vassilis Gkoumas, an economist at WWF and co-author of the report, said: "Ongoing nature loss threatens our economy and health, and makes us more vulnerable to climate change. Nature-Positive Transition Pathways provide a way for the Government to reverse this, by mobilising private capital, reducing pressure on public spending, and driving sustainable and resilient economic growth. They are a win-win for nature and the economy."

Charlie Dixon, Programme Director at the Green Finance Institute – "Delivering the UK's nature targets will require mobilising capital at a scale that public funding alone cannot provide. Developed in partnership with businesses and financial institutions, this methodology provides a practical bridge between national nature targets and the investment opportunities and policy interventions needed to deliver them."

Anita Lazurko, Senior Transdisciplinary Scientist at UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology – “We’ve proposed a co-creative, iterative methodology that brings together diverse sources of evidence to co-create, evaluate and model nature-positive transition pathways. We chose this approach to open up the scientific ‘black box’ of pathway assumptions and modelling to businesses, financial institutions, governments and wider stakeholders. In doing so, we hope the proposed pathways build upon strong, evidence-based data and models while reflecting diverse needs, capabilities and goals.”

Notes to editors

The "Co-creation and evaluation of Nature-Positive Transition Pathways for the UK economy" report is available at: https://www.greenfinanceinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Nature-Positive-Transition-Pathways-Report-FV.pdf

Over the past 10 months, GFI, WWF, and UKCEH have worked with the UK Government and more than 60 businesses and financial institutions to develop this methodology, ensuring Nature-Positive Transition Pathways are useful, ambitious, and practical.

The report sets out how NPPs will be produced and how they will guide sectors in achieving environmental targets.

This work reflects genuine cross-sector collaboration: scientists and environmental NGOs working under a mandate and with funding from the UK Government, alongside businesses and financial institutions.

Importantly, this report responds directly to Defra's commitment in the Environmental Improvement Plan and to a call to action from the private sector.

This work is funded by Defra and UKRI.

Technical details

The report sets out a clear methodology for developing NPPs. The report screened 64 potential models to produce a modelling chain that can translate quantitative sector

actions into quantified biodiversity outcomes. Importantly, it distinguishes between actions that can and cannot be modelled and outlines a methodology for measuring both.

The report includes a quantified two-way integration of climate and nature. It tests the NPP alignment against multiple Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emissions scenarios and aligns background assumptions with the Climate Change Committee's (CCC) own Balanced Pathway, so the two frameworks are directly comparable.

Nature-Positive Transition Pathways give businesses the long-term clarity needed to invest with confidence, manage transition and physical risks, and meet disclosure expectations.