Scottish Government with NatureScot and SEPA is pleased to be supporting CreditNature to develop an option for a new voluntary biodiversity market in Scotland that we believe has strong potential to help scale responsible private investment into nature restoration in Scotland.
Following the outcome of a competitive research and development procurement process, CreditNature were selected to take part in the Scottish Government’s flagship innovation accelerator programme, CivTech.
Following the Accelerator, Scottish Government and NatureScot are providing funding of around half a million pounds to CreditNature under a pre-commercial agreement.
Collectively Scottish Government, NatureScot and SEPA are working closely with CreditNature during the current pre-commercial stage (September 2023-September 2024) to ensure that their market proposition is aligned with the Scottish vision of a values-led, high-integrity market for responsible investment in natural capital.
Achieving the outcomes in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy is a public and private responsibility. Scottish Government is currently working to refine its understanding of the role private finance can play alongside existing public investment in nature, such as the £65M Nature Restoration Fund (NRF). CreditNature’s market proposition has strong potential to play an important role in helping to maximise the outcomes for nature sought.
Scottish Government and its partners will assess CreditNature’s market proposition at the end of the pre-commercial stage (September 2024) in terms of its alignment with, and potential contribution to, our National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) vision for natural capital markets. This assessment will draw heavily on emerging standards from the BSI’s Nature Investment Standards programme and forthcoming Scottish Government policy, notably the Natural Capital Markets Framework.
