22 October 2026
FfB Foundation today published its first update of the report “Integrating Nature into Sovereign Debt Markets: Towards a New Sovereign Debt Nature Assessment Model”.
Released during CBD COP17, this update highlights the growing importance of the sovereign debt asset class in resource mobilisation for biodiversity. With new tools, the latest academic research, policy expectations, and improvements to the Assessment Model, the report builds on the results of its public consultation to provide greater practical support to financial institutions integrating nature into sovereign debt assessment, pricing, and management.
After its initial launch in November 2025, the Report was open for consultation alongside the Assessment Model through to early 2026. The FfB Secretariat, with the support of the members of its Sovereign Debt Working Group, then worked on updating the content of the report and improving the Assessment Model based on the feedback. This update is parallel to work focusing on increasing the usability and concrete use of the Assessment Model by financial institutions in their operations.
The first report update has been supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), which helps entrepreneurs and organisations to invest, develop and expand their businesses and projects both in the Netherlands and abroad. It is a government agency which is part of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Reinforcing the Assessment Model usability for sovereign debt investors
The Assessment Model review includes additional metadata for each indicator. This includes more details on the type of information, the units and scales, notably to better understand the different indices and rankings, as well as insights on the financial/environmental materiality of each indicator, and a mapping directly linking each indicator to a relevant target from the Global Biodiversity Framework.
This update also includes a review of the second pillar on ‘Socio-economic activities’, providing a clearer distinction between ‘Sectoral Exposure’ and ‘Macro-economic Indicators’. It provides two new complementary indicators under Sectoral Exposure based on lessons learned (Energy Mix) and market updates (ENCORE Country Dashboard for European countries). The section on macro-economic indicators now includes new indicators providing further insights on risk transmission channels, based on the rationale developed in the CBD Study on the relationship between debt sustainability and implementation of the Convention.
A focus on market updates and areas for policy engagement
The new updates to the report also aim to showcase the momentum and importance of the topic at the global level, for both investors and policymakers. The update highlights a range of new tools such as the ENCORE country dashboard and a new methodology published by PBL Netherlands which looks at impact factors for quantifying country-level terrestrial biodiversity intactness footprints.
Also highlighted are pioneering academic studies that provide a theoretical foundation and rigorous methodological assessment to highlight how nature-related factors influence sovereign debt – including the UK government’s paper on biodiversity loss as a threat to national security. In addition, the Report update highlights that sovereign debt is being considered a key item under the GBF Resource Mobilisation Strategy
Since publication and based on discussions with policymakers, various potential opportunities for sovereign engagement have been identified. The report calls for further integration of nature within the World Bank Group’s Debt Sustainability Assessment and the IMF Country Reports. It calls for governments to develop nature-positive sectoral pathways to provide policy clarity to investors over the long term and to further consider the interactions between public and private finance as part of the overall alignment of financial flows with global biodiversity goals.
Key next steps for the FfB working group on Sovereign Debt are laid out in the report. They will focus on supporting financial institutions to further integrate the model into their practices, notably through the development of country reports, a country analysis methodology, and a fast-track approach to the assessment model.