1. Introduction

Recognising Australia’s natural resources as assets can help drive investment that sustains the country’s food security and biodiversity.

The widespread adoption of innovative and sustainable land practices relies on measuring and valuing environmental ‘assets’ to encourage the adoption of best practices. ‘Natural capital’ has both financial and non-financial value, it encourages sustainable land practices. There is already an extensive knowledge base and capability amongst farmers and their representatives, government, the research community, and intermediaries including natural resource management (NRM) organisations. But there isn’t currently a comprehensive and consistent set of  natural capital measures to support widespread adoption of natural capital measurement across Australia.

What we’re doing

As part of Climateworks’ Land Use Futures initiative, two priorities were identified by stakeholders for enabling widespread measurement of natural capital: creating a comprehensive set of natural capital measures and options for incentivising natural capital measurement at the property level. The Natural Capital Investment Initiative is focused on helping to create the tools and resources to support farmers and land managers across Australia efficiently measure their natural capital.

2. How we'll get there

1

Develop measures

Create a proof-of-concept Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue that outlines a comprehensive set of natural capital measures

2

Test the measures

Engage external stakeholders to test, validate and refine the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue

3

Explore incentives

Pilot incentive programs for supporting natural capital measurement at the property level

4

Scale up

Through targeted events, communications and reports highlighting progress, including our first major milestones: hosting the Natural Capital Summit and publishing the Natural Capital Roadmap report

3. Resources

Natural capital measurement enabled by new reference catalogue

As Climateworks Centre releases Version 1.0 of the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue, Program Impact Manager Eithne Cahill explains why it’s a crucial resource for governments and corporations.

  • Food, land and ocean
  • Tools
  • Website

Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue

The Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue helps integrate natural capital considerations into business, financial and government decision-making, by facilitating convergence on a core set of consistent and comparable natural capital metrics that can be measured across all scales and different land use types.

Aligning our work on the natural capital measurement catalogue with the global Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is emerging as a crucial enabler that can accelerate the transformation towards a nature-positive future. System Lead Liam Walsh explains the ‘beta’ updates to the TNFD framework and how Climateworks Centre’s natural capital measurement pilot aligns.

  • Blog
  • Food, land and ocean

There’s no path to net zero without nature

Explore how land use, nature and measuring its value can all form part of the climate solution

  • Blog
  • Food, land and ocean
  • Webinar

The briefing room: The twin challenge of tackling climate change while preserving nature

To limit warming to 1.5°C we need global emissions reduction as scale.

  • Australia

Building Australia’s natural capital

Nature can be protected and restored through improved measurement and investment.

  • Australia
  • Blog

Natural capital investment initiative – Phase 1 report

Globally, there is increasing recognition of the importance of protecting and restoring nature in order to mitigate climate change impacts.

Natural Capital Investment Initiative to accelerate, thanks to a multi-year funding commitment

The Macdoch Foundation commits three years of funding to Climateworks, to support phase two of the Natural Capital Investment Initiative

  • Food, land and ocean
  • Media

Land use futures publishes natural capital roadmap

The first major output for the Land use futures program brings together ideas from leaders across the country on sustainable land use in Australia

  • Australia
  • ClimateWorks news

Land use futures team hosts natural capital summit

150 leaders from across the land use sector exploring opportunities for integrating natural capital thinking into how Australia uses its land.

  • Australia
  • ClimateWorks news