£10m environmental government funding open to businesses

The final round of the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund is open for applications from businesses and organisations to tackle climate change.

The £10m funding will be invested in a broad range of projects aiming to deliver environmental benefits and demonstrating a range of approaches to generating revenues from the range of benefits nature provides.

Projects will be designed to provide a return on investment by capturing the value of the carbon, water quality, biodiversity and other benefits provided by natural assets such as woodlands, peatlands, catchments and landscapes.

This will create a pipeline of projects for the private sector to invest in, demonstrating the UK’s leadership and action in scaling up finance for nature and climate during COP26.

The Swinton Estate in North Yorkshire received funding from the first round. It is working to develop a new business model for multi-functional forestry to realise wider benefits from carbon sequestration, biodiversity credits, recreation, and water quality.

Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, Chief Executive, Green Finance Institute, said: “As highlighted in our recent report, England alone faces a £21bn to £53bn finance gap over the next decade in reaching key nature goals.

“The Fund plays an important role in filling this gap through its development of a potential pipeline to attract private investment into nature, and through the shared learning provided by the Fund’s Community of Practice.

“We look forward to seeing the innovative projects within this second round of funding.”