Blog: Nature Positive Solar – Indicators and Opportunities
Piran White
Professor of Environmental
Management at the University of York
Nature Positive solar is about developing new approaches to
the operation and management of solar energy projects that
have benefits for nature and ecosystems, while also creating
attractive opportunities for investors who want to do what’s
right for the planet and meet policy requirements.
The idea of nature-positive solar is generating increasing
interest across the solar value chain. Ecologists and solar
site managers want to know how they can manage solar
assets in the best way for nature, perhaps enhancing
grassland species or pollinator populations. Solar asset
managers want to improve nature across a portfolio of
different sites and know how to best present this for ESG
reporting. Investment banking and management firms need
to be able to show their clients that investing in nature can
deliver good and reliable returns.
There are also powerful policy pressures at work in relation
to nature-positive solar. The Kunming-Montreal Global
Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which has been adopted by
the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, aims to halt and
reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and achieve recovery by 2050.
In this context, disclosures by business and industry
on the impacts of their activities on nature are increasingly
being incorporated into sustainability reporting frameworks.
Nature-related disclosures are currently voluntary but are
likely to become mandatory across the globe in the future.
Within the UK, there are also strong policy drivers for these
changes. Alongside ambitions to increase the growth rate of
the economy, there are targets of 1.5 million new homes by
2029, carbon net zero by 2050 and halting species decline
by 2030. This means the UK faces difficult choices over
how best to use its land, as discussed in the recent Defra
Land Use Consultation for England. More complete
recognition of the true value of nature through nature
markets is viewed by government as a way of scaling up
private investment in nature, whether through voluntary
nature credit markets, regulations and compliance, or
legislative means, such as Biodiversity Net Gain 2050.
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