The IKI-supported Water, Energy, Land-use Nexus programme, in co-operation with the Swiss Federal Office for Environment, organised dedicated sessions on Nature-related Financial Risks and Opportunities. They took place as part of the OECD-hosted GREEN Action Task Force (GATF) Annual Meeting on 15–16 June 2026 in Paris.
The session facilitated exchange on a range of experience in assessing and managing nature risks for economic and financial systems, and opportunities to address the risks. It started with insights from the UK’s global assessment of nature risks and their implications for economic resilience and stability. The session then benefited from solid emerging findings from on-going analytical and policy work in Georgia and Kazakhstan in co-operation with the OECD-hosted GREEN Action Task Force.
During the open discussion, participants exchanged experiences from ongoing work in countries including valuable updates and lessons from Uzbekistan’s National Committee for Ecology, the Central Bank of Armenia and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
The sessions were brought to a close with Armenia’s vision and roadmap towards the Biodiversity COP in Yerevan.
Key messages
The session highlighted that nature- and climate-related risks are increasingly seen as economic, financial and security issues. A key message was the need to make nature-related investment more practical, bankable and better connected to policy and finance frameworks. Several participants expressed interest in co-operating with the Task Force on the nature finance agenda in EECCA.
Speakers:
· Carol Vaughan, Head of Nature Security, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom: Insights from the UK assessment on Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security
· Takayoshi Kato / Lucy Watkinson, Environment Directorate, OECD: Nature Finance in EECCA - Risks and Opportunities
· Salome Tvalodze, Head of Sustainable Finance Division, National Bank of Georgia: Embedding Nature in NBG's Sustainable Finance Framework
· Manas Gizhduaniyev, CEO, the Green Finance Centre of the Astana International Financial Centre: Policy paper on nature-related risks in Kazakhstan
· Aram Meymaryan, Deputy Minister at Ministry of Environment, Armenia: Armenia's COP17 Presidency
· Jusipbek Kazbekov, Deputy Minister, National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change of the Republic of Uzbekistan
· Ashot Petrosyan, Head of Financial System Development, Central Bank of Armenia (online)
· Rustam Tahirov, Director, Financial Sector Sustainable Development Department, Central Bank of Azerbaijan (online)
