ENCORE sets out how the economy – sectors, subsectors and production processes – depends and impacts on nature. Financial institutions in particular can use data from ENCORE to identify nature-related risks they are exposed to through their lending, underwriting and investment in high-risk industries and sub-industries.
As a sub-section of the tool, the ENCORE biodiversity module has been developed to help financial institutions explore how to align their activities in the agriculture and mining sectors with important global goals for nature.
With a vision to establish a global financial system that works for nature and people, ENCORE is designed to be a useful entry point to nature-related assessment initiatives - such as the new risk management and disclosure framework developed by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) – guiding organisations through the early stages of their nature-positive journey, whatever their understanding or prior experience of managing nature-related risks.
About the ENCORE Partnership
The ENCORE tool is maintained and continuously improved by Global Canopy, UNEP FI and UNEP-WCMC, who together form the ENCORE Partnership, previously known as The Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA).
Global Canopy targets the market forces destroying nature. We do this by improving transparency and accountability. We provide innovative open-access data, clear metrics, and actionable insights to leading companies, financial institutions, governments and campaigning organisations worldwide to help them make better decisions about nature, forests and people.
The UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) brings together a large network of banks, insurers and investors that collectively catalyse action across the financial system to deliver more sustainable and inclusive global economies.
The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is a global Centre of excellence on biodiversity and nature’s contribution to society and the economy. The Centre operates as a collaboration between the UN Environment Programme and the UK-registered charity WCMC.
ENCORE funding and priorities
The initial ENCORE tool was financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the MAVA Foundation. The ENCORE biodiversity module is financed by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).
As part of its second phase of SECO funding, priorities for the ENCORE Partnership up to 2027 include helping banks and their clients build their nature-related risk assessment capacity in priority countries (Colombia, Indonesia, Peru and South Africa), as well as helping their governments carry out national-level natural capital risk analysis. This work will support the implementation of global agreements and initiatives such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the TNFD framework.
ENCORE also receives support from the SUSTAIN project, a three-year project with the ambition of facilitating transformative changes within the global economy to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. SUSTAIN contributes to ENCORE through a dedicated work package led by UNEP-WCMC, which aims to improve, update and validate ENCORE’s natural capital knowledge base. This focuses on incorporating the latest scientific and empirical research to build ENCORE’s knowledge base, and on making improvements to its structure to enhance its usability. The improved knowledge base is scheduled for release in 2024.
The SUSTAIN project partner consortium is made up of Capitals Coalition, Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, UNEP-WCMC, WBCSD, ShareAction, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, ETH Zürich, Fundación Biodiversidad of the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, and IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature (Headquarters and the European Regional Office). SUSTAIN is funded by the EU’s research and innovation program Horizon Europe, by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), and by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee 10038461.
If you would like to know more about ENCORE, please contact us.