Technology, Finance, and Transformational Change
Abstract:. Catching Finance and Technology on the move, actionable and scalable pathways towards a nature-positive economy are unravelled, and the next steps set out to:
i) Develop, test, and overhaul conventional approaches to Asset Management, to take the Sustaianbility Crisis into account;
ii) Mobilise Assessment Tools through Collaborative Service Platforms, servicing and building capacity in collaboration with government and the private sector worldwide, and; Novel Approaches to Impact Investment, utilising AI, empowering economic agents, creating a direct fast-track to supporting the most viable Nature-based Solutions projects backed by user-friendly high-quality verification mechanisms.
A roaring world economy is increasingly accompanied by untenable pressures on the natural environment, on course to bring a precarious ecological moment in human history. Temperatures are rising, extreme weather events intensifying, water cycles destabilising, and forests, soils, and ecosystems eroding at unprecedented speed. Health, food security, and the stability of societies are at mounting risk, fueling conflict, displacement, and systemic uncertainty.
Environmental measures are often portrayed as constraints on innovation, competitiveness, jobs, and affordability. It is true that bureaucracy and reporting for its own sake do not bring meaningful progress. And policies enacted in support of sustainability tend to have adverse distributional consequences. A disproportionately heavy burden falls on those less well off due to their higher share of affected basic expenditures, such as energy and food in their budgets. Yet the idea that economy and nature stand in confict rests on a false narrative. Apparent trade-offs emerge when attention is artificially confined to short-term gains flowing to vested interests – while long-term value streams of nature, diffusing broadly across society and across generations, are discounted or ignored. And while vulnerable groups account for a minimal share of ecological damage, they are also the least able to protect themselves against the damage. To preserve the status quo, misinformation, greenwashing, distrust, and confusion have taken hold. The crisis is systemic. Turning the tide goes beyond incremental improvement, requring transformational change. The good news: a shift in direcion is both possible and increasingly visible, though far from the scale required. This panel highlights actionable pathways to a nature-positive economy – emphasising what can scale today – while addressing core obstacles: failed policies, entrenched incumbents, moral hazard, misinformation, institutional lock-ins, and a chronic shortage of tools, skills, and aligned incentives. Finance and technology are on the move; this session explores where leadership can emanate from and next steps must be taken, to realise win–win outcomes for economy and nature to become reality.
Many financial institutions, including insurers, recognise the gravity of unresolved sustainability risks. An enormous overhaul of asset prices is around the corner – driven Without Nature, there is No Economy.
Relations between the two will not Resolve by Themselves 3 by rising temperatures, biodiversity loss, extreme weather events, floods, and fires. Yet the financial sector lacks the experience, tools, and incentives to address what is at stake, while moral hazard is rampant. Losses from environmental degradation can be shifted to others, with stressed assets no longer insured, and governments expected to bail out the financials, the day the costs become untenable.
Serious considerations have begun in major fora, such as the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), how to progress towards a “green financial system”, capable of managing climate and environmental risks. Financial decision-making processes must proceed to take account of climate, nature, and transition considerations, with adequate forward-looking supervision taking shape. Consultations with the financial industry leading up to this panel have landed in a sharp message: An interoperable toolbox integrating climate- and nature-related risks into financial decision-making needs to be co-created, tested, for lessons to be learned and shared.
A broad suite of proactive measures needs to take shape, including:
A new generation of AI-enabled, satellite-supported and digitally integrated service platforms is emerging. These systems bring together data collection, risk assessment, scenario modelling, compliance workflows, and project monitoring for coherent progression in support of sustainability.
Instead of piecemeal diagnostics, such a platform can provide a single environment for collecting ESG and sustainability data, running structured risk assessments, modelling scenarios, and tracking progress against agreed goals. AI-enabled analytics transform raw firm- and agency-level information into comparable indicators, dashboards, and decision-support tools that illuminate where value is currently being destroyed, where it can be restored, and which interventions offer the greatest leverage. Embedded modules for project management, disclosure and reporting reduce the administrative burden associated with new standards, while strengthening alignment with global frameworks on climate, nature, and social value.
Thus far, however, uptake is slow. Competences are scarce, initial costs are high, and transaction frictions deter early adopters. As a result, promising technologies remain underused, and national institutions lack the infrastructure to coordinate across ministries, regulators, financial institutions, and private firms.
Smart business models can unlock deployment. A publicly accessible demonstration package – offered to countries as a national “test bed” – allows authorities and industry to shift from piecemeal assessments to a living digital infrastructure. Om this basis, decision-makers at all levels can continuously track risks, verify improvements, identify nature-positive investments, and coordinate action more effectively.
The panel will examine how viable business models can be placed on offer, governed, deployed, and scaled – moving from theory and exclusivity to practice and inclusion.
Across countries, surveys show strong citizen willingness to engage as well as financially support nature restoration along with social progress. Yet trusted, accessible, and meaningful investment channels remain largely absent. At the same time, thousands of nature-based projects – reforestation, regenerative agriculture, watershed protection, community resilience – struggle to secure stable and scalable funding. This panel will explore how to design, govern, and expand such mechanisms as part of a broader nature- positive financial ecosystem.
Conventional savings products,green funds, and donation channels often appear opaque, complex, or disconnected from daily life. Financial intermediaries face high due- diligence costs and have limited incentives to serve small ticket sizes.
New payment-linked impact platforms offer user-friendly avenues to bridge this divide by embedding micro-contributions and targeted allocations directly into the flow of retail and merchant payments. Each payment can be channelled to curated portfolios – as determined by users according to their priorities. Transparent tracking, third-party verification, and intuitive impact dashboards award users visibility of impact. Financial intermediaries gain scalable distribution channels, while governments and public banks can co-invest, blend, or match funds to accelerate priority initiatives.
Aggregated across thousands or millions of users, such platforms stand to unlock significant patient capital streams, complementing institutional investment while also enabling models for co-investment with public banks or philanthropic actors. Based on strong governance, safeguards, and regulatory compliance, everyday consumption can become a continuous source of nature-positive impact investment – activated by the wallets, cards, and apps people already use every day
Governments & Policy
Expected to lead, but constrained by political cycles, institutional inertia, lobbying, and fiscal pressures.
Business & Finance
Possess resources and growing awareness, but face incoherent policies, misinformation, unreliable verification systems, misaligned incentives, and moral hazard. Early movers are under-rewarded; laggards face few consequences.
Technology & Innovation
Technological capability has grown immensely—capable of both deepening environmental harm and generating high-impact complementarities. Yet R&D timing and incentives are distorted by uncertainty, weak commitments, and time-inconsistency problems: postponement often wins over decisive action.
Citizens, Culture & Civil Society
Citizens influence outcomes as voters, consumers, and activists. Many act in support of sustainability, but knowledge–action gaps, polarisation, and misinformation limit collective pressure. Where solutions are co-created and local knowledge is mobilised, support for conservation and regeneration is strongest.
In Search of Synergies
All four drivers are active; none can turn the tide alone. The challenge – and opportunity – is to align them around practical mechanisms for mobilising finance, deploying technology, and enabling cooperation at the scale and pace the crisis demands.
