Mistra BIOPATH is a transdisciplinary research programme that brings together academia, industry, the financial sector and public authorities to integrate biodiversity into financial decision-making, so the financial system can help halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
2022
Mistra BIOPATH (Pathways for an Efficient Alignment of the Financial System with the Needs of Biodiversity) is funded by Mistra, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research. Mistra is investing SEK 50 million, with participating organisations contributing at least SEK 5 million, and Lund University is the main contractor. The University of Gothenburg is a joint applicant, together with Stockholm University. The program maps, evaluates and co-develops existing and new approaches for integrating biodiversity into financial decision-making, and analyses their institutional and political consequences. It focuses on land-use change in agriculture, forestry and energy. SCDI contributes expertise in digital innovation and AI, which the program uses alongside big data and smart infrastructure to develop and test new tools and approaches.
Biodiversity, sustainable finance, financial decision-making, nature-related risk, governance innovation, AI, twin transition
Biodiversity loss is accelerating, yet it is still largely invisible in the decisions that allocate capital. Land use is the largest driver of terrestrial biodiversity loss. Companies and financial institutions lack reliable ways to measure their impacts and dependencies on nature, to translate them into decision-relevant information, and to act on them within existing routines, instruments and regulations. As a result, the financial system reinforces biodiversity loss far more often than it counteracts it.
The program is organized in three interlinked work packages: • quantifying biodiversity impact for industry and the financial system, • integrating biodiversity considerations into financial decision-making, and • mainstreaming biodiversity through governance innovations. A Co-Creation Task Force works across all work packages. Research is done side by side with industrial and financial partners, who test the relevance and usability of tools in their own operations. Policy Labs connect the results to public and private governance.
The program feeds research-based knowledge into how banks, investors and land-intensive industries assess and manage nature-related risks and opportunities. It contributes to national and international policy processes on biodiversity and sustainable finance, and builds long-term capacity through doctoral training and a shared vocabulary between biodiversity science and finance research.
Lund University (lead), Stockholm University, Chalmers, University of Exeter, Arla Foods, Handelsbanken, Stora Enso, Södra, Vattenfall, Kraftringen, SEK, LRF (Federation of Swedish Farmers), the Swedish Forest Agency and more.
Contact our team to learn more or explore collaboration opportunities.
