Nature and the tech sector: understanding risk and opportunity
It is well established that protecting and restoring nature brings incalculable, compounding benefits to both natural ecosystems and society. At a high level, restoration underpins mitigation and adaptation to climate change, as well as the global economy; locally, it can improve community health and wellbeing.
However, it is only recently that the strong links between business and nature have been fully explored. While certain sectors, such as food and agriculture, are evidently nature-exposed, for others – including the tech sector – the links are more opaque. The recent IPBES Business and Biodiversity assessment address this head-on, laying out that all businesses depend on and impact biodiversity; more than that, they can also be agents of positive change.
At techUK, our Tech Nature and Biodiversity working group exists to firstly increase awareness and understanding of the nature and biodiversity crisis within the tech sector, and secondly to support the growth of the ‘nature tech’ ecosystem. In following with this mission, we have launched a new initiative to help companies begin or scale their nature journey, with the goal of mobilising £5.6m – 0.1% of the UK’s annual funding gap – for nature and biodiversity. This National Nature Fund is UK-wide and meticulously vetted, and aims to lower the bar to entry for companies of all sizes and maturity to be part of the solution.
The context: why nature?
Within the context of climate change, with the risk of flooding and heat predicted to increase, “ecosystem services” – the direct and indirect contributions ecosystems provide to human well-being and quality of life – take on an even greater importance. UK peatland, woodland and kelp forests provide carbon storage, flood risk reduction, and habitat for threatened species, while green spaces in cities have been shown to reduce temperatures by 5C during heatwave.
In measurable economic terms, the UK’s natural environment is valued at over £1.5tn, generating tens of billions of pounds of value each year – value only increased by investment in restoration. For example, the recent case of beaver reintroductions have led directly to a notable increase in biodiversity (making the whole ecosystem more resilient to shocks) as well as a natural reduction in flood risk for the local population, saving government and individuals thousands of pounds in mitigation efforts.
Globally, the need to protect and restore nature is even more acute. More than half the world’s total GDP ($44 trillion) is moderately or highly dependent on nature; nature loss is one of the top four global risks over the next decade. The UK government’s own assessment stated plainly that “global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity” via everything from food security to global weather stability.
Taken together, it is evident why government interest in protecting nature has risen over the past few years.
In 2022, 196 countries adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the most ambitious international biodiversity agreement ever reached. Its centrepiece is the '30x30' target to protect and conserve 30 per cent of the world's land and oceans by 2030 – this is based on a scientific assessment that conserving a third of global habitats is the minimum requirement to allow ecosystems to sustain themselves, keep wildlife populations viable, and maintain essential natural cycles. This global target thus provides the framework through which much of the national and local progress on conservation is assessed.
Here in the UK, the government has confirmed that nature is a ‘national priority’. The 2025 Environmental Improvement Plan sets out “Restored Nature” as the first of its five goals and intersecting themes, which includes recognition that nature underpins all subsequent goals and commitments.
More specifically, the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), which requires most new developments over a certain size to deliver a minimum of 10 per cent uplift in biodiversity (on or off site) has drawn global interest as the world’s first mandated, compliance-driven biodiversity market. Countries around the world are monitoring its implementation and associated biodiversity metric as a potential model to halt nature depletion and mobilise private capital for conservation. Additionally, the new Nature Restoration Fund (per Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025) provides a concurrent route for developers to fund landscape-scale nature recovery via contributing to Environmental Delivery Plans.
If nature is so important, why is it not a broader statutory requirement, similar to carbon? Put simply, thinking on nature is less mature, and fundamentally more complex.
Carbon has a single unit (the tonne of CO₂ equivalent) whereas there is no universal metric for nature and biodiversity. At the moment, nature technically lacks the equivalent of the Climate Change Act (2008) – i.e. a single, overarching legislative framework with binding, quantified, independently monitored targets cascading across the economy. That said, the Environment Act (2021) does set a legally binding target to halt the decline of nature by 2030 and improve it by 2042, but this is predominantly framed around halting and reversing decline. Although monitored by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), the enforcement mechanisms are less strong, and there is no statutory requirement for individual sectors or companies to demonstrate a contribution to a national nature target in the same way.
What’s more, with decarbonisation, a tonne of carbon reduced in Manchester has the same effect as in Manila. Nature doesn't exactly work that way; the ecological value of land is entirely context dependent, making national target-setting and compliance verification hyper-local and far more complex to design into statute. Ecosystems are defined by their specific conditions, including geology, hydrology, soil type, climate microclimate, species assemblages, connectivity to surrounding habitats, and cannot necessarily rely on global averages or proxies in the same way.
That said, the regulatory landscape is evolving rapidly, and the direction of travel is clear that nature disclosures will be mandatory in many jurisdictions in the near future.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD; distinct, but following on from the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) which has now been integrated into UK Sustainability Reporting Standards) has developed the LEAP approach for businesses assessing nature dependence and impact. techUK hosted a session on this for members early in 2026.
The TNFD is now in the process of finalising its supplementary sector guidance before it transitions into an advisory and capacity-building role, supporting the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in adopting the TNFD framework to create a mandatory global baseline for nature reporting, and supporting global regulatory convergence on nature.
Already in the EU, the ESRS E4 (under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD) creates reporting obligations that directly mirror TNFD's LEAP methodology.
Nature is one of the UK’s greatest economic assets, valued at over £1.5 trillion and generating tens of billions of pounds in measurable value every year. However, restoration takes time, expertise and resources, all of which require funding. Government is currently addressing this via public and mixed public-private funding mechanisms (such as the Big Nature Impact Fund) as well as supporting private nature markets and standards.
Nevertheless, it is estimated that in the UK alone, there is still a £56m private sector funding gap per year for the UK to meet nature-related outcomes.
Where tech comes in: enabling and mobilising
As the regulatory environment matures, investors and other stakeholders increasingly start to question businesses’ dependence and action on nature – and the tech sector is no exception. For many tech businesses, risk is embedded in materials, water, and climatic conditions, rather than in direct operational interactions with ecosystems. The TNFD LEAP approach is designed to help businesses of any size to understand and address these supply chain vulnerabilities, while finance mechanisms support mitigation and social value. As technology evolves, becoming increasingly entrenched in our everyday lives, the opportunity for the tech sector to play a bigger role in supporting nature-positive outcomes also increases.
However, tech and nature intersect in another way – that of directly supporting nature and biodiversity in functions such as data and evidence gathering, environmental baselining, and monitoring ecosystems and species. Given nature is inherently local, the data infrastructure needed to understand, monitor, and verify it must also be tailored locally specific. This ‘nature tech’ sector is expected to grow significantly over the next few years, as nature-related regulatory requirements become business as usual.
This includes technologies such as high-resolution satellite imagery, in-field sensor networks, eDNA sampling, and acoustic monitoring, which the generate granular, location-specific data to assess risk or verify intervention outcomes and nature credits. The measurement challenge is essentially a data challenge, and it's one the tech sector is uniquely placed to solve.
The UK is estimated to have one of the strongest nature tech ecosystems in the world, as innovation has been driven by regulatory mechanisms such as BNG, and further with the implementation of the NRF. However, government has a role to play in ensuring these companies can grow and thrive, following on from the climate tech success story.
techUK National Nature Fund
Therefore, techUK is working with member Ecologi to set up the National Nature Fund, which contains a curated portfolio of UK-based nature projects, ncluding tree planting, peatland restoration, wildflowers and seagrass.
Projects are assessed using robust due diligence and impact criteria, with a focus on transparency, environmental integrity and measurable outcomes. All funded projects are assessed through Ecologi’s Nature Project Assessment Framework (NPAF) to ensure they meet high standards for quality and credibility.
This is designed specifically to enable companies to either start or scale their nature journey, contributing to projects that they know will help ensure our digitally enabled future is one which is equally nature positive.
Interested in getting involved? Head to our landing page here or email Elisabeth for more information!
techUK - Committed to Climate Action
Visit our Climate Action Hub to learn more or to register for regular updates.
By 2030, digital technology can cut global emissions by 15%. Cloud computing, 5G, AI and IoT have the potential to support dramatic reductions in carbon emissions in sectors such as transport, agriculture, and manufacturing. techUK is working to foster the right policy framework and leadership so we can all play our part. For more information on how techUK can support you, please visit our Climate Action Hub and click ‘contact us’.
Latest Report
Upcoming climate events
Latest news and insights
Get our climate insights straight to your inbox
Climate, Environment and Sustainability updates
Sign-up to get the latest updates and opportunities from our Climate, Environment and Sustainability programme.
Learn more about our Climate campaign
Become a member
