On September 18, 2025 the kick-off meeting for the CEN Workshop “Nature based insurance and investments – guidance on performance and design criteria” brought together experts from financial consulting, nature-based solutions research, European banking institutions, and local and regional authorities. Growing out of the work and research of the NATURANCE initiative, funded under the Horizon Europe programme , the CEN Workshop aims to define shared performance metrics and design principles for nature-based insurance and investment solutions. The initiative addresses a key challenge: nature-based solutions often lack recognition in financial products and struggle to scale, limiting their overall impact.
During the meeting, a representative for CEN/CENELEC introduced the CEN Workshop process. The Workshop operates collaboratively, bringing together interested participants to develop a CEN Workshop Agreement, a type of pre-standard that can later be adopted by a standardization body for further development. This pre-standard has the benefit that it can be quickly developed, serving as a fast track to future standardization activities. The idea is to inform a standard (such as an ISO standard) that may grow out of this work could support the scaling and mainstreaming of nature-based financial innovations.
The elected workshop Chair, Jaroslav Mysiak of the Euro Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change, highlighted the unique focus of this effort: defining clear performance criteria for Nature-based Solutions (NbS). While working together on the draft CEN Workshop Agreement, participants will work to fill a unique niche not currently addressed by previous efforts, such as defining what constitutes a Nature-based Solution (NbS) Instead, this process will work to identify relevant performance criteria, thereby closing the finance gaps related to climate action, disaster risk reduction, and biodiversity by providing transparent criteria and guiding principles for integrating NbS into the design and operational frameworks of nature-based insurance and investment solutions.
The process has been initiated by the coordinators of the NATURANCE project, but is open to participation from any interested party. Professionals in insurance and financing are invited to join and shape the discussion on shared metrics and design principles for nature-based solutions. Those with expertise also in nature-based solutions and related areas of research are also encouraged to join.
The CEN Workshop process will continue through early 2026, with monthly meetings as well as regular opportunities to comment on an evolving draft. Registration is required by November 18 for any level of commitment: whether it is to comment on the final draft, attend each meeting, or receive occasional updates on the process.
Information on how to register is available on the CEN website.
For more background on the CEN Workshop process, please see:
For any questions about the CEN Workshop info@naturanceproject.eu.