Energy & Climate
Working with nature
British Red Cross and WWF-UK partner to combat climate threats with nature-based solutions.
28 January 2025
Main image: Early morning at Morston Quay, part of Blakeney National Nature Reserve in Norfolk
Norfolk and Suffolk, like many regions across the UK, are experiencing increasing economic risk as water scarcity, pollution and flooding disrupt businesses in sectors ranging from agri-food, water and energy to development and infrastructure.
Co-investment in nature-based solutions by businesses and local government offers a nationally replicable model that can reduce these risks and unlock growth.
A new report from the Green Finance Institute (GFI), ‘Developing Regional Economic Resilience through Nature‑based Solutions: Norfolk and Suffolk’, outlines how strategic co-investment in nature-based solutions by businesses and local government can support regional growth plans and address water, food and infrastructure threats that are contributing to economic risk.
Presently, national policy barriers, lack of coordination and critical data gaps are holding back action.
Where multiple businesses share risks across a landscape, it’s crucial they should be able to strategically co-invest in nature-based solutions (NbS); alongside public sector investment, this would boost resilience for businesses, local communities and the wider economy.
In the report’s Foreword, Natural Capital East, a collective of leading organisations in East Anglia including Anglian Water, National Grid and Tarmac, calls for a more coordinated approach and co-investment strategy to secure the region’s future economic growth and meet key national security objectives.
‘The climate and nature risks facing businesses in the region are significant and worsening. Without collaborative action bringing partners together to think differently, we’ll see economic and environmental impacts affecting the communities we serve. Investing in catchment and nature-based solutions will play a vital role in ensuring our resilience as well as other businesses and communities. I warmly welcome this GFI report which highlights these issues and what we need to address them.’
ROBIN PRICE
Director of Environment and Assurance, Anglian Water Services
The recommendations in the report are applicable across England, where acute climate change and nature degradation are negatively impacting business. Although centred on Norfolk and Suffolk, the report is explicitly designed as a case study for other regions, setting out a model for how businesses can collaborate around shared local assets to address climate and nature risks.
‘We know that climate change and nature degradation create national security and economic risks, but for investment to flow, businesses need to have a clear business case, as well as the mechanisms that enable them to invest.
‘Many businesses across England want to allocate capital to nature-based solutions to improve their business resilience, yet there are currently barriers that prevent them from co-investing. This report provides a path forward, not just for Norfolk and Suffolk, but for regions across England.’
RHIAN-MARI THOMAS
CEO, Green Finance Institute
The region presents clear opportunities for action but investment in nature-based solutions is still held back by multiple structural barriers, many of which apply nationally.
These include data gaps preventing the establishment of clear business cases, limited mechanisms for coordinated cross‑sector action, inability for some regulated businesses to co-invest and persistent hurdles for project developers in accessing investment.
‘If we hope to mobilise investment into nature recovery and create resilient communities, then businesses, local government, land managers and eNGOs need to be brought together in their shared landscape to develop opportunities for investment. At the same time, as this report shows, there are structural barriers that need to be unlocked.’
HELEN AVERY
Programme director, Nature, Green Finance Institute
Norfolk and Suffolk account for approximately 2% of UK GDP and have ambitious growth targets, aiming to increase GVA by 40% by 2036. The region underpins nationally significant agri‑food supply chains – part of the East of England ‘breadbasket’ where approximately 75% of land is used for agriculture – and hosts major energy and infrastructure assets, such as the Sizewell nuclear power stations, alongside critical transport and logistics networks.
Yet Norfolk and Suffolk are among the UK’s most exposed counties to climate and nature risks – including water availability, water quality, flooding and soil health. This constrains growth, increases costs and undermines resilience, while also posing wider risks to national supply chains and economic stability.
Some farm businesses report crop yields falling by 30–40% in 2025 compared with the five-year average, driven by escalating pressures of flooding, drought and degraded soils. In some areas a moratorium is already in place preventing new non-domestic water connections and preventing any increase in water use by existing businesses.
These regional impacts pose national risks. The UK Government’s 2026 National Security Assessment identifies climate change and nature degradation as threats to food security and national resilience, underscoring how risks concentrated in counties like Norfolk and Suffolk – which play an important role in the UK’s domestic food production – can quickly translate into wider national vulnerabilities.
As part of this programme, roundtables are now being held in other parts of the UK to explore how similar place‑based approaches could be applied elsewhere.
The findings will also inform a national report with policy recommendations, due in the summer, which will set out how government, regulators and businesses can better enable regional, place‑based investment in resilience at scale.
The report builds on GFI’s previous analysis, published in 2024, which quantified the scale of climate and nature risks to the UK economy, as well as looking at where those risks are being felt most acutely, and how they can be addressed in practice.
That report, in partnership with the University of Oxford and University of Reading, found that nationally nature degradation could cause a 12% loss to UK GDP – larger than the hit felt by the global financial crash or Covid-19.
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