Alice Machová leads the Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) team at EY Czech Republic, which focuses on CFO agendas, digital technologies, financial processes, and accounting standards, including IFRS and US GAAP. She also heads the Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) practice, where she and her team help companies set ESG strategies, decarbonization plans, and financing for sustainable projects. Her professionalteam provides advisory support to communities and businesses seeking to grow responsibly and sustainably.
According to a study by the Joint Research Centre of the European Union, more than half of the world’s GDP and one-third of the EU’s added value are completely dependent on healthy ecosystems. Yet we are witnessing an alarming decline in biodiversity, soil degradation, and drying water resources. As pressure grows on businesses and public institutions, new tools are being sought that not only protect nature but also help it actively recover.
Nature credits bring a new perspective by recognizing nature’s value for economic stability and growth, while reflecting the commitment of 196 signing countries of the Global Biodiversity Framework (2022) to halt biodiversity loss by 2030.
They are certified units of environmental benefit arising from verified interventions that restore or improve the condition of nature – for example, wetland restoration, planting greenery, improving soil quality, protecting pollinators, or restoring marine ecosystems. They can be tradable, and their value is always measurable using scientifically backed indicators.
The European Commission has decided to open space for this path — one that delivers genuine, verifiable, and economically meaningful impacts rather than merely paying compensation. In its Nature Credits Implementation Plan (2025), released in July, the Commission defines a framework intended to ensure the credibility and quality of nature credits. The process should include strict certification, third-party verification, transparent registries, and safeguards against greenwashing.
The European Commission plans to launch the nature credit system in two phases.
An expert group at the EU level will also be established to oversee methodology development, support knowledge sharing, and connect member states, companies, and research institutions. This coordination is crucial to avoid fragmentation and ensure comparable credit quality across the EU. Global and European experience with carbon credits shows that without clear rules, trust, and real benefits, suffer.
Many companies across sectors are beginning to view nature as a strategic asset or at least as a significant factor in their economic models and risk management. Whether in food production, energy, or insurance, healthy ecosystems underpin long-term stability and resilience.
Nature credits can offer a way to invest in nature while achieving economic returns. Supporting regenerative agriculture or wetland restoration, for example, can reduce emissions, improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, and simultaneously contribute to ESG reporting under frameworks such as CSRD¹ or TNFD².
Although the market for nature credits is not yet fully operational, companies can begin taking meaningful action now:
EY Czech Republic can significantly help companies with these steps. EY has a certified TNFD tool called EY NAT, which enables measurement of a company’s impacts on nature, identification of related risks, and the design of concrete measures aligned with European and global requirements. EY can also support credit preparation and other nature-positive interventions to strengthen economic resilience.
To make the nature credit system work, credibility is essential. This relies on principles such as measurability, additionality, permanence, prohibition of double counting, and transparency. Only through these can credits deliver real benefits for nature rather than serve as mere image enhancement.
Alongside opportunities, challenges must be acknowledged: lack of data, complexity of biodiversity measurement, and the need for long-term monitoring.
Still, nature credits may fundamentally change how economies relate to nature. They represent one of the few mechanisms able to link nature protection with business. They open a path to an economy that does not extract from nature but invests in it. In the context of climate, ecological, and social crises, nature may be our greatest ally for responsible growth.
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