Nature Broking and the University of Strathclyde partner to build better tools for valuing nature
Nature Broking has entered into a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University of Strathclyde, bringing academic research in finance and AI directly into a commercial carbon and natural capital business. The KTP programme will help Nature Broking continue to innovate by embedding a graduate researcher in the company over two years, supported by experts from the Responsible Business Institute (ReBI) at Strathclyde Business School. Together, the partners will build the pricing, risk and due diligence tools needed to help financial markets value nature transparently. For Nature Broking's clients, the partnership will strengthen our advisory services at every stage of a purchase, from screening projects and agreeing a fair price to understanding risk and reporting.
The challenge
Natural capital is fast becoming an investable asset class, yet the tools used to price it and judge its quality lag well behind those of mainstream financial markets. Carbon credits trade at widely different prices for reasons buyers often cannot see, and due diligence still depends heavily on analysts reading long, inconsistent project documents by hand. At the same time, corporate buyers and investors are moving towards fewer, higher-quality credits, driven by net zero commitments, new integrity standards such as the ICVCM's Core Carbon Principles, and closer scrutiny of climate claims. That shift rewards advisers who can show, with evidence, why one credit is worth more than another.
The KTP is designed to close that gap: to give Nature Broking the pricing, risk and analytical infrastructure that institutional investors expect of any other asset class, built on peer-reviewed methods and modern AI. By combining Nature Broking's market experience with Strathclyde's research in asset pricing, sustainable finance and AI, the partnership places Nature Broking at the frontier of how natural capital is valued, priced and trusted.
What the partnership will deliver
The partnership has five core objectives, each built around the decisions Nature Broking's clients make and tested on live client work throughout the project.
An automated due diligence engine. Carbon and nature projects are documented in hundreds of pages of design documents, monitoring reports and verification statements, published in different formats across several registries. The project will build an AI-enabled engine that reads these documents, extracts the evidence that determines credit quality, such as additionality, permanence and baseline integrity, and assesses it against a structured framework, drawing on a proprietary database of registry, developer and market data. For clients, this means faster, more consistent assessments, with every project judged against the same framework and an auditable evidence trail that helps them stand behind their climate and nature claims.
Transparent valuation and pricing models. Drawing on Strathclyde's asset pricing expertise, the project will adapt established financial-econometric methods, including quantitative scoring, index construction and scenario-based valuation, to explain how a project's attributes relate to its price. Clients will be able to see why a credit is priced as it is, compare offers on a like-for-like basis and negotiate with greater confidence.
Rigorous risk and uncertainty analysis. Nature-based assets carry risks that conventional models rarely capture: ecological events such as fire or drought, gaps in data, macroeconomic shifts and changing policy. The project will classify these uncertainties, test how sensitive valuations are to them, and express results through ranges, confidence bands and risk flags. This will give clients a clearer view of what could affect a project's value, supporting internal approvals and board discussions.
Practical decision-support tools. Analysis only creates value when it is used. The models will be turned into tools such as dashboards and structured templates, tested on live client mandates and due diligence work, and embedded across the Nature Broking team through training and workshops.
Sharing knowledge. Findings will be shared with clients, partners and certifying bodies, presented at conferences including the British Accounting and Finance Association and the European Finance Association, and submitted to leading peer-reviewed finance journals. Clients will benefit from these insights ahead of wider publication, while the wider market gains research that helps bring institutional capital to nature. Case studies will also feed into Strathclyde's sustainable finance teaching.
The first year focuses on building the data foundations, auditing and integrating internal and external sources into a consistent structure, before developing and testing the valuation models. The second year turns to risk and uncertainty analysis and to building the decision-support tools, embedding them across the business so that the capability remains in place long after the partnership ends.
Meet our KTP Associate
Seyed Mojtaba Mousavi joins Nature Broking as Natural Capital Markets Research Associate, the KTP Associate leading the project day to day. He brings strong quantitative and analytical skills to a role designed around financial modelling, data and emerging AI techniques.
Mojtaba begins with a review of the latest academic and policy literature on natural capital markets, alongside an applied study scoping carbon and nature credit pricing approaches and a due diligence assessment of a historical project. Throughout the partnership, he will work closely with the Nature Broking team and his academic supervisors at Strathclyde Business School.
'I’m pleased to join Nature Broking and bring my experience in financial modelling and data analysis to the business, helping to develop the tools needed to value nature transparently.' Mojtaba Mousavi.