Given the difficulty many pension funds have had in producing their first mandatory climate-related disclosures (these have been widely criticised for including unreasonably rosy assumptions in the obligatory scenario analysis), it seems unlikely that many will be rushing to include nature-related disclosures unless the Occupational Pension Schemes reporting regulations are expanded.

A handful of countries have moved further down this regulatory path. France, for example, has required biodiversity disclosures from asset managers for some years, and this has helped to spur managers to develop more products addressing biodiversity issues. “We don’t have silver bullets but we do have more solutions available,” says Robert-Alexandre Poujade, Lead Biodiversity Analyst at BNP Paribas Asset Management.

For UK defined benefit pension schemes, many of which are in run-off, the scope for action is likely to be limited. Illiquid investments such as forestry become less attractive as a fund comes closer to buyout by an insurance company, as these assets tend to be less readily accepted by insurers because of their Solvency II weightings. But the steady inflows into defined contribution funds mean these could become increasingly important investors in natural capital. That could be of interest to trustees seeking to anticipate future regulation by adding biodiversity disclosures to those already mandated on climate change.