Transparent: Standardised Natural Capital Management Accounting

Year Published

2023

Contributing Organizations

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

Capitals Coalition

Value Balancing Alliance

European Commission

Type of Resource

Guidance

Standard

Languages

English

Relevant Topics

Core Topic

Nature

Topic 2

Impact Assessment

Topic 3

Target Setting

Target Audience

Real Economy Corporates

Relevant Geography

Europe

Resource Description

This guidance outlines a management accounting approach for creating natural capital accounts at the entity level. It supports decision-making for environmental sustainability and aligns with CSRD and EU Taxonomy requirements by linking nature-related impact drivers with their social and economic effects.

Why This Matters

Public development banks play a key role in closing the nature finance gap, yet lack standardized methods to quantify their catalytic effect on private capital. This methodology enables consistent, transparent reporting of mobilization outcomes, supporting accountability and helping scale effective NCMA-aligned interventions.

Key Insights

Defines NCMA as a decision-support tool that uses natural capital principles to improve how public finance influences outcomes for nature and climate
Presents a modular four-step methodology to estimate mobilized capital: (1) eligibility filtering, (2) counterfactual establishment, (3) causality assessment, and (4) attribution and reporting
Focuses on additionality, causality, and transparency to strengthen credibility of mobilization estimates
Designed for use across public finance instruments and development contexts, with options for ex-ante and ex-post assessments
Includes implementation guidance, real-world examples, and links to broader climate-nature finance integration