Businesses are buying into new financial products that could help save nature, but funds for nature’s protection have not reached the scale required.

Synopsis: Every first and third Sunday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.

Coral reef bonds, biodiversity credits and schemes that enable national debt to be forgiven in exchange for conservation efforts.

These are just some of the financial instruments that have been in the news recently, as the world races to find the funds needed to prevent nature from falling into further decline. But when did the financial sector start paying attention to nature, and can their involvement in conservation truly help to protect and restore natural ecosystems?

Financing for nature is expected to be a key topic of discussion at the COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia in October. In the lead-up to the United Nations summit, Green Pulse co-hosts Audrey Tan and David Fogarty discuss the role of the financial sector in nature conservation with Ms Hoon Ling Min, investment director at decarbonisation investment platform GenZero.