Navigating Nature-related Regulations for Banks: Mapping the Policy Landscape

About this Report

UNEP FI and WWF’s Greening Financial Regulation Initiative have jointly authored a new publication, Navigating Nature-related Regulations for Banks: Mapping the Policy Landscape. As nature-related regulatory initiatives for banks are picking up globally, this report helps make sense of these developments, and how broader policy frameworks interact.

Central banks and financial supervisors are starting to acknowledge the necessity of tackling nature-related financial risks as part of their prudential mandate. This report shows that at least 29 jurisdictions totaling more than EUR 75 trillion of banking assets have started to consider nature risk in their prudential frameworks.

However, prudential regulation does not act in isolation, as it is part of a wider system of rules—such as corporate disclosures, taxonomies, and due diligence obligations—that depend on and inform each other. This creates a complex interplay of linkages that interact locally within jurisdictions but also globally across jurisdictions. As highlighted by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a broad coalition of actions and responses is needed across all layers of the private and public sectors to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and live in harmony with nature by 2050.

This report is the first of its kind in providing an overview for banks to understand the latest regulatory developments on nature-related issues, and for government policymakers to consider ways to promote coherent and effective nature-related policies for the banking sector. It features:

• A stock-take of nature-related initiatives across prudential regulation, taxonomies, corporate disclosures and corporate due diligence obligations. It primarily relies on the WWF’s Sustainable Financial Regulations and Central Bank Activities (SUSREG) tracker that covers 50 jurisdictions across all major regions including Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
• An overview of policy considerations with case studies for government policymakers when designing nature-related policy interventions.

The report was developed with financial support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

(This link will take you to an external website)