Creating co-benefits and commercial opportunities through suitable blended financing mechanisms.
Project activites: Investment landscape assessment, sustainable finance products assessment, working groups and roundtables, Blue Finance Product development, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) Accelerator creation, bankable NbS portfolio development.
The project aims to identify the most suitable financing mechanisms for climate and biodiversity and develop a roadmap to establish such systems to ultimately implement and test locally-developed bankable NbS projects in the selected site(s).
Rise of ecotourism in the UAE
The NbS project aims to create a pipeline of low-impact ecotourism initiatives to promote sustainable business innovation and attract further investments for nature. As such, there are plans for an eco-trail at Mangrove Beach in Umm Al Quwain to raise public awareness, promote appreciation for the natural beauty of the area, and stimulate ecotourism.
Innovative Solutions to Improve Food Security
We are studying the feasibility of enhancing, restoring and cultivating local salt-tolerant plants in coastal lagoons. These have the potential to be used in food production as super foods, green salt, fodder and other by-products which can be produced by local communities, in turn creating alternative revenue streams, sparking greater SME growth and entrepreneurship, and supporting economic diversification.
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Identifying barriers and opportunities to unlock public/private finance for NbS;
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Determinating Blue Carbon financing incentive options and helping establish a finance vehicle that enables blended finance towards NbS in the UAE: Blue Finance Product – first of its kind;
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Creating an NbS projects portfolio based on climate mitigation, resilience and co-benefits which is worth investing in, ultimately helping increase financial flows towards nature conservation with tangible returns for potential investors.
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Reviewing the current investment landscape in terms of financial flows and current sustainable finance products, while identifying barriers and opportunities for the uptake of NbS Solutions financing;
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Identifying Blue Carbon financing incentive options and helping establish a finance vehicle that enables blended finance for NbS in the UAE;
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Co-creating a portfolio of bankable projects in collaboration with home-grown start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be implemented in the selected site(s), which could then be replicated elsewhere to increase environmental and financial gains;
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Establishing Working Groups and roundtables to assess motivations for investments in NbS, make recommendations, test assumptions and advise on actions;
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Raising additional grant and donor capital with support from the HSBC Global Accelerator programme, which will help incubate and structure investor-ready NbS, outlining their benefits, risks and trade-offs, as well as the likely return on investment.
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Setting up partnerships with existing initiatives in the UAE and creating a UAE NbS Accelerator special initiative that will help spark interest towards impact investing while creating the necessary avenue to divert sustainable finance to new, NbS-driven business opportunities in the UAE.