Nature Investment Standards Programme webinar

Investing in nature, from woodlands, peatlands and wetlands to hedgerows and wild meadows, supports biodiversity, net zero and other environmental benefits. We are leading a programme for nature investment standards, in partnership with Defra, and involving extensive stakeholder input from across UK nature markets, to help boost market confidence and overcome barriers in this space.

Join this webinar to learn more about the programme, how to get involved and hear from key stakeholders.

By attending the webinar, you can:

• Learn about the programme and how it can help build confidence in nature markets and increase private sector investment into nature recovery
• Discover the emerging standards framework that will set out clear principles and robust requirements to drive efficiency, greater clarity and rigour for high-integrity markets
• Hear from Lord Benyon on the UK Government’s market framework and get valuable perspectives and insights from other key stakeholders
• Pose questions to nature experts and standards makers

14:00 – 14:10 Welcome and introduction

Sebastiaan van Dort, Associate Director, Energy and Sustainability, BSI

14:10 – 14:25 Investing in nature and the market framework

The Rt Hon Lord Benyon DEFRA Minister of State

14:25 – 14:35 Programme objectives and the emerging standards framework

George Sethia, Programme Lead, BSI

14:35 – 14:45 Stakeholder perspective: investors and buyers

Helen Avery, Director of Nature Programmes and GFI Hive, Green Finance Institute (GFI)

14:45 – 14:55 Stakeholder perspective: suppliers and providers

Rohit Kaushish, Chief Economics Advisor, National Farmers’ Union (NFU)

14:55 – 15:40 Panel and Q&A

Chaired by Sebastiaan van Dort, Associate Director, Energy and Sustainability, BSI

Panellists:

Helen Edmundson, Deputy Director - Green Finance, Defra, Paul Cottington, Head of Conservation Investment, RSPB, Rohit Kaushish, Helen Avery and George Sethia

15:40 – 15:45 Wrap up and close

Sebastiaan van Dort, Associate Director, Energy and Sustainability, BSI

The webinar will provide important insights to a wide spectrum of public body, land management, environmental and financial stakeholders including:

• Organizations involved in the natural environment investment readiness fund (NEIRF)
• Farmers, land owners and land managers
• Financial institutions and investors
• Nature project developers and scheme operators
• Environmental NGOs, charities and other bodies
• Environmental consultants
• Public sector organisations and related bodies, including Devolved Administrations and local government
• Financial and environmental regulators
• Academics, researchers, scientists and experts

The Rt Hon Lord Benyon was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 30 October 2022. He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 13 May 2021 to 30 October 2022.
Lord Benyon returned to DEFRA having been Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Natural Environment, Water and Rural Affairs from May 2010 to October 2013. Lord Benyon was raised to the Peerage in January 2021.

Education
Richard was educated at Bradfield College and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.

Political career
He was Conservative MP for Newbury from May 2005 to November 2019.

Career outside politics
Following a career in the army, where he served with the Royal Green Jackets from 1980 to 1985, Richard qualified as a chartered surveyor and ran a business which included farming, forestry and the management of rural and urban housing.

Rohit oversees a team of economists, statisticians and rural experts to develop and communicate the economic policy of the NFU. Key areas of focus include measures to manage agricultural market volatility, enhance productivity and environmental delivery. With a background in finance and ecological economics, specific areas of interest include investigating how natural capital approaches, net zero transition, environmental markets and government initiatives can support the resilience of the agricultural sector and food systems.

Helen Avery is a Director of Nature Programmes and GFI Hive within the Green Finance Institute. She leads the Institute’s work on supporting the development of a pipeline of investable nature projects and on building investor and buyer demand. The Institute also hosts the Secretariat for the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and Helen oversees the UK National Consultation Group.

George is the BSI programme lead for the Nature Investment Standards Programme, and is currently responsible for the discovery phase that will make recommendations on the framework of standards for UK nature markets and priority areas for development. With a background delivering a range of strategy and transformation programmes across sectors, George also heads up the BSI Knowledge Services consultancy team, where he oversees the delivery of standardization programmes to enable the development of new markets and drive progress against pressing global issues.

Helen Edmundson heads up the Green Finance team in the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, supporting the development of ecosystem service markets to significantly scale investment into natural capital.

An economist by background, Helen has spent much of the last 15 years working on international development, focused on the policies and partnerships needed for sustainable growth. Helen has a keen interest in the nexus between natural capital, climate and finance and has explored this in countries such Guinea-Bissau, Uzbekistan, Kenya and now the UK.

Paul leads the Conservation Investment team at the RSPB which is made up of specialists in ecosystems services, finance, project and programme development/ management and legal support. As a team we are focused on delivering the RSPBs 2030 strategy for nature which includes supporting the use of private finance to scale up all our work to meet the nature and climate crisis. We work in all four UK countries as well as in the UK Overseas Territories and globally. Our work has a number of priorities which includes advocating for high quality markets that truly deliver for nature and communities and delivering on the ground projects both through working with partners and the wider countryside as well as on our own estate.

Sebastiaan has over 15 years of experience within the low carbon industry, working on key policies and initiatives such as the Energy Company Obligation, The Green Deal, Warm Home Discount and the Smart Meter roll-out, collaborating with government and regulators to deliver these policies.

His career includes senior positions at British Gas, OVO Energy, EDF Energy and VINCI Construction as well as working with rapidly growing start-ups in the low carbon industry.

He is currently the Associate Director of Energy with the British Standards Institution and engages with key stakeholders from government, industry and NGOs to define BSI's strategy for market-driven best-practice solutions on a range of topics and initiatives including; enabling the transition to Net-Zero, supporting and accelerating the decarbonisation of transport, and supporting and enabling innovation in energy.

This event contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 on end hunger, achieve good security, sustainable agriculture; goal 6 on clean water and sanitation; goal 11 on sustainable cities and communities; goal 13 on climate action; goal 14 on life below water and goal 15 on life on land.