NATURE-3B aims to make a significant contribution by developing (i) Nature-Protecting Benchmarks for investors such as pension funds or insurance akin to EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks (EU PABs), (ii) a Nature-Protecting Bond framework particularly targeted at municipalities and corporates, and (i) six tools for central banks, ESAs & NCAs (see Outcomes 1-6 in the Consortium Overview below), As a consortium including three current members of the EU’s Platform on Sustainable Finance including the Head of its Data Science Hub and lead author of EU PABs, NATURE-3B is uniquely positioned to achieve real world impact. Following the success of EU PABs, which grew beyond €100 billion in assets within less than 3 years (European Commission, 2023), the consortium expects that Nature-Protecting Benchmarks can exceed €10bn within three years after the launch. Given the fortunate timing of the EU Green Bond Standard applying from December 21st 2024, and the 60+ corporate and municipality supporters already interested in the concept of Nature-Protecting Bonds, the consortium expects an issuance volume of €30bn within 3 years of launch. These could, for instance, fund marine ecosystem protection of Gozo (Malta), support the Pape Nature Reserve of Liepaja (Latvia) or encourage forest restoration near Sanok in southeast Poland. With considerable work experience with central banks, ESAs and NCAs, NATURE-3B is confident that 15 of them will use a relevant tool following the project. The tools include: (1) Nature Dependency Dashboard, (2) Asset level risk database, (3) Nature-related scenarios portal, (4) Nature-related stress test models, (5) Portfolio & financial system nature alignment tool, (6) Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for SFRD biodiversity impact analysis and TNFD scoring.

MAIA (Mapping and Assessment for Integrated ecosystem Accounting) aims to mainstream natural capital and ecosystem accounting (NCA) in EU member states. MAIA uses the System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA) as the methodological basis for NCA. The SEEA EEA provides a consistent framework for analysing and storing information on ecosystem assets and flows of ecosystem services, in both physical and monetary units. The SEEA EEA follows a spatial approach, requiring extensive (spatial) data and models as inputs into the accounts. In MAIA, a flexible approach will be followed, allowing for adaptation of the SEEA EEA framework to the conditions of individual EU countries. In particular, MAIA will: (i) assess policy priorities for accounting; (ii) test, pilot and mainstream NCA in 10 countries; (iii) test innovative approaches for NCA in the European context; and (iv) support NCA in the EU through various communication and dissemination activities including the

Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services (ES) are core to the EU Biodiversity (BD) Strategy. They are essential if we are to make informed decisions. Action 5 sets the requirement for an EU-wide knowledge base designed to be: a primary data source for developing Europe’s green infrastructure; resource to identify areas for ecosystem restoration; and, a baseline against which the goal of ‘no net loss of BD and ES’ can be evaluated. In response to these requirements, ESMERALDA aims to deliver a flexible methodology to provide the building blocks for pan-European and regional assessments. The work will ensure the timely delivery to EU member states in relation to Action 5 of the BD Strategy, supporting the needs of assessments in relation to the requirements for planning, agriculture, climate, water and nature policy. This methodology will build on existing ES projects and databases (e.g. MAES, OpenNESS, OPERAs, national studies), the Millennium Assessment (MA) and TEEB. ESMERALDA will identify relevant stakeholders and take stock of their requirements at EU, national and regional levels. The objective of ESMERALDA is to share experience through an active process of dialogue and knowledge co-creation that will enable participants to achieve the Action 5 aims. The mapping approach proposed will integrate biophysical, social and economic assessment techniques. Flexibility will be achieved by the creation of a tiered methodology that will encompass both simple (Tier 1) and more complex (Tier 3) approaches. The work will exploit expert- and land cover-based methods, existing ES indicator data and more complex ES models. As a result the outcomes will be applicable in different contexts. The strength of the ESMERALDA consortium lies in its ability to make solutions for mapping and assessment problems available to stakeholders from the start of the project, because our expertise allows us to build on existing research projects and data sharing systems.