Quantitative Indicators & Implementation for Environmental Conservation – Transition, Nature Finance Qorus-NTT DATA Innovation in Insurance Awards 2026

Nippon Life Insurance Company (“Nippon Life”) believes that the global environment, which is the foundation of everything, must be sustainable. However, sustainability efforts often tend to be abstract. To actively advance these efforts in the business world, the goals and definitions have to be specified in a common language that everyone can understand.

Accordingly, we developed two frameworks with concrete indicators to address global challenges: “Nippon Life Transition Finance Framework” (climate) and “Nippon Life Nature Finance Approach” (nature), promoting companies, financial institutions, and even governments to move forward on the same page.

In transition finance, ambiguous definitions and criteria for corporate decarbonization transitions have slowed efforts and financing. We therefore defined the proper transition to curb global warming as investments for corporate initiatives aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal and developed the Transition Finance Framework, which assesses the alignment between a corporate plan and a decarbonization pathway consistent with the Paris Agreement (“Paris Pathway”). We embed a carbon‑budget rule—cumulative GHG emissions of a plan must stay below the Paris Pathway—allowing flexibility in mid‑ to long‑term plans even in hard‑to‑abate sectors.

In nature finance, progress has been limited due to the lack of a clear “nature‑positive” definition, complex indicators, and a disconnect between company and nature. The Nature Finance Approach provides a simple, science‑based quantitative evaluation method using two indicators of Planetary Boundaries—ecosystems and species—enabling companies and investors across sectors to evaluate nature‑positive performance and easily take concrete actions.

We developed these frameworks with external stakeholders and specialist consultants, holding discussions with our management and investment teams.

After publishing the Transition Finance Framework, we were invited to speak at international events such as COP29, joined the Task Force on Preparation of the Environment for Transition Finance held by Japanese ministries, and received product‑collaboration proposals from financial institutions. We financed Japanese electric utilities, and German asset manager DWS launched a fund based on our framework, in which we decided to invest about JPY 53 billion.

After developing the Nature Finance Approach, we were appointed a core member of Ministry of the Environment’s the Study Group on Nature Positive Economies and invited to government‑ and academia‑hosted conferences, contributing broadly to scaling up nature‑positive initiatives.