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What it means to be Head of Nature at Lloyds Banking Group

 

How can finance help curb and reverse the devastating impact of nature loss before it’s too late?

Katie Leach
Head of Nature, Lloyds Banking Group
Published on: 19 September 2023
4 min read

The natural world provides everything we need to survive and to flourish. From the air we breathe to our supply of critical resources such as food and water – without nature we, along with every other creature on earth, simply couldn’t exist.

Yet according to the World Wildlife Fund, the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with more than one in seven species facing extinction and over 40% in decline.1 And climate change is one of the primary drivers of nature degradation, alongside land use change and pollution. So with the stakes this high, how can finance help curb and reverse the devastating impact of nature loss before it’s too late? 

These are the kind of questions I’ve always tried to answer throughout my career, and why I recently joined Lloyds Banking Group as the Group’s first Head of Nature – a new role, designed to ensure that nature is embedded into decision making across the business. Below I’ll explain a little more about the role, plus what financial institutions can do to help halt and reverse the loss of nature.

 

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"Climate change is one of the primary drivers of nature degradation, alongside land use change and pollution."

 

The link between climate change and nature decline

Although there are subtle differences between nature loss and climate change, both are essentially one and the same. Climate change is one of the biggest drivers of nature loss and, in turn, nature loss drastically reduces the ability of ecosystems to store carbon, amplifying the effects of climate change and creating a kind of vicious circle. In other words, you can’t address one without addressing the other. 

Systemic, transformative change at a landscape-scale is absolutely critical in curtailing the effects of and reversing nature loss. That means the planting of trees in upland areas, supporting farmers to protect and restore nature in agricultural land, greening the built environment with a housing stock that meets Biodiversity Net Gain requirements, protecting and restoring fresh water and marine environments for recreation and tourism, and much more besides. 

And just like we’re hearing on climate, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we are reaching a series of dangerous tipping points in nature that require urgent action. So it’s incumbent on large organisations and governments across the world to take this seriously, manage their nature-related risks and drive change as soon as possible through nature-related opportunities. 

Thankfully, governments and companies alike are waking up to the threat posed by the state of our natural world and at COP15 last year, 188 countries signed up to the Global Biodiversity Framework, made up of several stretching nature targets aimed at restoring nature between now and 2030. It’s for this reason that I was hugely excited to join the Group as Head of Nature in the first place, and while the challenges ahead are certainly difficult, I am optimistic they can be overcome.

 

 

"So far, it’s been fantastic to see the commitment coming from the top of the organisation – from senior leaders and stakeholders who are able to lead by example and make positive changes."

 

What is the responsibility of Head of Nature?

In my role as Head of Nature, it’s my responsibility to ensure that nature is embedded in decision making right across the Group – from the products and services offered to the investments we make. So far, it’s been fantastic to see the commitment coming from the top of the organisation – from senior leaders and stakeholders who are able to lead by example and make positive changes.

In terms of challenges, though, one of the biggest facing our business – and any large financial institution grappling with nature – is gathering the right data to understand the relationship our clients have with the natural world. Having a standardised view of a company’s impacts and dependencies on nature throughout their value chain would be a major unlock in understanding our own risks and opportunities in this space. 

With this in mind, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) – who we currently work with – is helping address this challenge, as their recommended disclosures will help companies and financial institutions start to assess and manage their impacts and dependencies on nature in a more standardised way. I look forward to monitoring the TNFD’s progress over the next few weeks and months and am hopeful their framework will be an important step forward in integrating nature in our decision making. 

"Having a standardised view of a company’s impacts and dependencies on nature throughout their value chain would be a major unlock in understanding our own risks and opportunities in this space."

 

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Nature protection at Lloyds Banking Group

Although I’ve only been in my role for a few months, I’ve already seen how seriously this topic is being taken – from our most senior leaders undergoing training to colleagues fully committed to engaging with me while we refine our nature approach as a business. It’s also clear, however, that we still need to undergo huge change in order to support the protection and restoration of nature.

Given that the whole economy is in some way dependent on nature, addressing this issue is absolutely vital. But there are plenty of reasons for optimism. The recent launch of the disclosure framework by the TNFD, which should help promote a shift in global financial flows towards investments which benefit nature, is definitely another step in the right direction and will help spur action from companies and financial institutions grappling with the nature crisis.

Looking closer to home, we’re currently expanding our internal expertise with regards to nature and I’m looking forward to building on our great work already underway with organisations such as The Woodland Trust and the Soil Association Exchange. 

Alongside this, it’s great to see that the UK Government recently demonstrated its commitment to curbing nature decline by contributing £10 million to a newly established international fund for tackling global diversity loss when over 185 environment leaders met in Canada during the latest Global Environment Facility assembly at the end of August. 

All steps in the right direction, and reasons to be optimistic in the face of the challenge of safeguarding our natural world.

Katie Leach
About the author Katie Leach

Head of Nature, Lloyds Banking Group

Katie Leach joined Lloyds Banking Group in May 2023 as Head of Nature. Katie previously worked at responsible investment NGO ShareAction, where she developed and led a new programme of work with investors and banks to raise the profile of biodiversity loss and drive the policies needed to shift this trend.

Prior to this, she worked for 6 years at UNEP-WCMC as Senior Programme Officer, Business and Biodiversity, leading a portfolio of work to embed nature within corporate and financial decision making.

This included leading the development of the ENCORE tool and pioneering work on corporate biodiversity measurement. Katie has a PhD in Biological Sciences from Queen’s University Belfast and an MSci in Zoology from the University of Nottingham.

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