The UK’s nature finance gap is tiny next to the trillions its investment industry manages. So why is so little private money reaching nature recovery and agroecological farming? A panel of bankers, insurers and investors explain what’s holding it back, and what would get it moving.
The UK government spends around £4 billion a year on farming and nature. Yet a 2021 estimate from the Green Finance Institute suggests a further £4–10 billion a year is needed just to meet the country’s nature and environment targets.
Set that against the roughly £11 trillion managed by the UK investment industry, and the gap looks like a rounding error. The question is why so little of that capital is reaching nature recovery and agroecological farming, and what it would take to change that.