Water Ledger partner Aqaix has joined forces with EcoMetrics to offer new financing strategies for nature based solutions – infrastructure projects that restore and enhance natural ecosystems and leverage ecosystem services.
“Nature based solutions are becoming hugely important as we plan for climate change adaptation“, said Aqaix CEO Mike Gardner. “In California, they’re being used to help recharge severely depleted groundwater reserves. On the East Coast, they’re helping with more frequent and more intense rainfall events, and globally there’s rapidly growing awareness of their ability to sequester carbon and foster biodiversity. Green bonds, carbon credits, biodiversity credits, and stormwater trading markets are all examples of new financial instruments which can be used to help fund these types of projects.“
“There is about a $711B annual shortfall in funding for nature based solutions projects,” said Ecometrics President Ed Pinero. “Meanwhile, natural environmental systems deliver $125T in annual value from their services to cleanse water and air, improve climate change resilience, mitigate flooding and drought damage, and provide other benefits. Because we can now quantify those benefits using today’s data and computing capabilities, we can also monetize them to encourage investment to fill the financing shortfall by making a more compelling business case.”
Aqaix and EcoMetrics will offer a free monthly webinar series to cover solutions and strategies, including green and other data driven bonds; monetization through carbon credits, water quantity and quality credits, biodiversity credits, aquifer recharge and groundwater markets, and stormwater trading. The sessions will feature panelists from thought-leading nonprofits, companies, financial institutions, government agencies, and academic institutions.
