Our programme goal:
To catalyse enabling conditions for ambitious policy change in the EU to
protect and restore peatlands.
Our work focused on:
Enabling a set of first mover private sector actors to become champions for peatlands restoration and protection.
What happened
Peatlands have been an emerging topic on the environmental agenda. When compared to forests, few companies or investors have specific targets or plans to restore these vital ecosystems or to protect them from further degradation. Without action to change this, we knew our programme goal would not be successful. The first step to increased corporate action on peatlands would be increased corporate and institutional investor awareness. We focused our efforts on connecting actors from across the private sector around finance mechanisms, transparency and disclosure of peatland emissions, and restoration potential in investment portfolios. We prioritised educating businesses and investors on the peatland opportunity as a key nature based solution.
Throughout the two years of our programme, we convened a number of critical events to discuss private sector action on peatlands. This included two events at the COP27 conference, peatlands 101 webinars and other workshops for both the business and investor communities on topics like the demystifying nature frameworks, including TNFD, SBTN, SBTI FLAG and GHG Protocol. And finally a deep dive Innovation Lab with actors working on peatlands in Europe. Through these events we were able to forge new connections and collaborations between organisations and people working on nature, increase knowledge and build an appetite for more action on peatlands (as seen by increased engagement from
the sector throughout the lifetime of our programme), and support for the formation of groups such as the Alliance of Pioneers, a private sector initiative to support paludiculture and a co-developed report, Investor Guide on Peatlands, with partners.
We also leveraged the growing interest from the business and investor communities on the nature agenda to drive policy action on peatlands in the European Union. Through a targeted partnership with Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) Europe we were able to successfully mobilise the business and investor communities – a vital voice in the debate – to advocate for an ambitious Nature Restoration Law (NRL) at the EU Parliament and Council levels.
Wins and losses
What worked
- Our private sector engagement work with CLG Europe produced a loud and collective private sector voice building momentum for the NRL in the media and with policymakers.
- Through a series of investor learning events on peatlands we were able to engage the nature teams at investor organisations, as well as investors, financial institutions and others. We saw increased attendance and participation in workshops over the lifetime of our programme, and participants actively seeking out opportunities to learn more.
- Our investor guides on peatlands – created with expert partners – educated the investment community on the latest global trends
on peatlands financing and barriers and opportunities for investment. We complemented this with our private sector briefing on voluntary carbon markets for peatlands. - The Innovation Lab for unlocking private sector action on Peatlands (in collaboration with GPI and the Climate Champions Team/Accenture) connected actors working on increasing private sector action on peatlands.
What didn’t work
- While the business momentum focused on the NRL as a whole, the peatlands target (Article 9.4) was removed from the Parliament’s position and weakened in the Council position.
- While we found companies and investors receptive to the wider nature discussion and framing, it was difficult to engage them on peatlands specifically at this current moment where nature and biodiversity is climbing up the agenda.
- We struggled to find the right angle for engaging the private sector without a clear-cut business case, or established roadmaps and frameworks already covering peatlands. We saw this increase over the time we were working on peatland restoration, and have seen positive signals of greater peatland inclusion and disclosure in the future.
- As the Innovation Lab took place towards the end of our programme lifecycle, there were limited opportunities for us to significantly build on the new ideas and collaborations that emerged from the event.
What did we learn?
‘Inform and educate’ events are powerful tools for building company and investor awareness: These events were valuable precursors to private sector action on peatlands, and are a necessary step to shift the corporate and investment communities towards action. Throughout our time working on peatlands, in partnership with Landscape Finance Lab, we were able to demonstrate increased interest on peatlands from private sector actors, as attendance and participation of events increased, we had individuals coming to multiple events and activities stating they were keen to continue to learn more. We learned that these sessions and resources were very valuable for the ecosystem, and subsequently partnered with
Landscape Finance Lab to develop the Investor Guide on Peatlands to further this education potential. We also leveraged the growing interest from the business and investor communities on the nature agenda to drive policy action on peatlands in the European Union. Through a targeted partnership with Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) Europe we were able to successfully mobilise the business and investor communities – a vital voice in the debate – to advocate for an ambitious Nature Restoration Law (NRL) at the EU Parliament and Council levels.
Engaging the private sector on nascent topics takes time and finding an entry point is critical: We knew that corporate awareness of peatlands was emerging, not established, but we quickly realised that it would take significant time and attention to build momentum. Engaging more widely on nature and biodiversity offered a good starting point for conversations with investors and companies before narrowing the focus down to more niche ecosystems, such as peatlands. This broader scope aligned more with the language, narratives and priorities of businesses and investors at the time. We were also much better able to get corporate actors to speak publicly about nature than peatlands, and so used the wider nature advocacy angle for our work in the European Union on the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) – see our NRL case study for more on this.
Building a business case and linking to existing frameworks is critical to engage the private sector: When we began our programme, we knew that there was not a widely known business case for peatlands restoration, and so we began by supporting our partners to build such a case, including supporting the formation of groups such as the Alliance of Pioneers, a private sector initiative to support paludiculture. We also saw the benefits of translating the existing frameworks that exist for climate and nature, and showing how these were applicable for peatland protection. We did this through ongoing engagement and consultation within the framework development, and notably, hosting a webinar on reporting frameworks for the private sector and developing resources on carbon markets as they relate to nature restoration. Building this foundation takes time, but is critical for driving long-term action within the corporate and investment sectors.
Showing clear, easy ways for participation is key for the competing priorities of companies and investors: We observed that environmental and sustainability teams at companies and financial institutions are juggling multiple priorities and are, as such, are selective of where they direct their attention. They are more likely to engage when there is a clear action they can take. We were able to support our partner, Corporate Leaders Group Europe to send letters signed by over 15 business and investor networks, and support the coordination of a letter from CEOs and executives to EU decision makers. We also supported the production of a communications toolkit for businesses to aid their public advocacy for the Nature
Restoration Law. Such actions were clear and easy to engage with, and therefore had a higher uptake than other, more general requests.
