What If We Gave Nature a Credit Rating?

In finance, risk is everything. Before you invest, you ask: how risky is this asset? How stable is the return? What are the chances it collapses? And that’s why credit ratings matter - they translate risk into something everyone understands.

So here’s a radical thought: what if we gave ecosystems a credit rating?

Imagine a mangrove forest rated “AA+” for storm surge protection. A degraded peatland marked “CCC” for carbon sequestration. A river basin flagged “Watchlist” due to upstream pollution.

By applying financial logic to natural assets, we unlock an entirely new market lens: one where biodiversity, resilience, and ecosystem health become investment signals, not just ethical aspirations.

This isn’t fantasy. It’s already starting.

In Costa Rica, the government pays landowners for ecosystem services based on models of forest health and water regulation. In the UK, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) metrics create value for restored habitats based on baseline quality and uplift potential. These are early forms of “nature ratings.”

Now imagine if those principles were standardised. Every habitat, forest, or marine area assessed and rated for its economic contribution to climate stability, public health, food systems, or flood protection.

Suddenly, land use planning becomes strategic. Investors can price in future ecological value. Insurance firms can reduce premiums for nature-positive assets. Governments can channel funds with precision.

Use case: a pension fund looking to back long-term infrastructure might choose to co-finance a regenerative watershed restoration, lowering downstream flood risk for a city. That investment could pay out through avoided insurance claims, improved property values, and performance-based resilience bonds. But only if the nature being invested in has a rating that proves its value.

Or picture the London Stock Exchange listing an ETF of “AAA-rated ecosystems” based on verified environmental returns. Investors could back biodiversity with the same rigour they apply to real estate or commodities.

The bottom line: nature is infrastructure. And infrastructure gets rated.

Let’s create the Moody’s of natural capital. Not to financialise everything - but to signal what matters, allocate capital wisely, and restore ecosystems at scale.

Because if we don’t rate nature, the market will continue to misprice it. And we’ll pay the cost.