Financial institutions increasingly recognise that nature loss and climate change are interconnected drivers of physical risk. However, understanding where risks occur is only the first step. To make effective investment, financing and insurance decisions, organisations also need to understand the ecosystems that underpin resilience and provide critical services such as flood regulation, water security and climate adaptation.

This session will explore how ecosystem extent data can be combined to integrate nature insights into climate risk modelling to drive better decision-making across banking, insurance and investment portfolios. Bringing together leaders from finance, data platforms and nature science, the discussion will examine how improved ecosystem information can strengthen physical risk assessments, reveal the value of ecosystem services from different ecosystems, and help identify and prioritise investments in nature-based solutions.

Through practical examples, including efforts to model and then reduce flood risk through landscape-scale nature restoration, speakers will demonstrate how translating biodiversity and ecosystem data into actionable insights can help move from risk identification to real-world resilience outcomes.

The session will highlight the growing role of ecosystem data in supporting risk management, investment decisions and progress towards global biodiversity and climate goals, while addressing broader challenges around data availability, usability and decision relevance.