Innovation for Nature

The Innovation Facility – financing new approaches on natural carbon sinks.

What is the Innovation Facility? 

The Innovation Facility is a grant-making programme targeting new types of nature-based carbon projects that, due to their innovative nature, do not yet receive sufficient finance via the Voluntary Carbon Market. The Facility will provide ramp-up finance for these projects. By doing so, they are intended to become investable for the private sector. All projects funded need to focus on nature-based activities that sequester CO₂ from the atmosphere, combined with strong positive biodiversity impacts. 

Specifically, the Innovation Facility aims to: 

• Demonstrate that ambitious approaches can be scaled-up by mobilising private sector investments.
• Mitigate climate change and deliver positive impacts both on biodiversity and on people’s livelihoods.
• Support the application of new approaches and technologies to better and more efficiently measure and monitor the positive impacts on biodiversity.

By design, the Innovation Facility will contribute to the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 
 
The Facility is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) via KfW Development Bank. It is managed and implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

How will the Innovation Facility be implemented? 

The Innovation Facility operates through competitive funding rounds designed to identify and support high-potential, innovative nature-based carbon projects.
Through its first funding phase, the Facility provided grants ranging from €750,000 to €1.5 million to projects that demonstrated strong potential to scale, attract future private investment, and deliver measurable biodiversity and climate benefits.
Projects are selected based on strict eligibility and assessment criteria, ensuring high standards of environmental integrity, innovation, and social impact.
The Innovation Facility remains committed to advancing innovative approaches to natural carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation. Information on future funding opportunities and application processes will be announced through IUCN channels as they become available.

Would you like to know more? 

To learn more about the Innovation Facility, its objectives, and the projects it supports, please explore the resources available on this website.

For additional enquiries, contact: innovationfacility@iucn.org