To tackle climate change, Ursula von der Leyen introduced the notion of “nature credits” in a speech given in Munich on Friday 13 September at the DLD (Digital Life Design) conference on nature.
The President of the European Commission is clearly taking inspiration from the carbon market, which “has been operating for almost 20 years” and which she described as “incredibly effective”. Confident in the idea of “creating a real market for restoring our planet”, Ms von der Leyen wants to draw on the experience gained with carbon credits to adapt this incentive mechanism to nature.
“Carbon pricing has raised €180 billion, which has been reinvested in climate projects and innovation”, said the President of the European Commission, who would like to see the same thing happen “for nature credits”. For example, a water company, “for whom the health of a spring is crucial”, could reward “local communities or farmers” who take care of it.
This project, which is fully in line with the priority given to competitiveness in the European Commission’s new term of office, is already underway. Ursula von der Leyen said that the United Nations was in the process of defining a global standard for “nature credits” and that the EU was working with Member States “to develop the first pilot projects to support this process”. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)