The 3rd Conference on Natural Capital tackled Brain Economy towards Sustainability.

Can natural assets be preserved by financial models? Is it just ideal or something consistent? What are the new boundaries of Environmental Economy? The third edition of the Natural Capital Conference, held on the 3rd November 2025 at the Yacht Club de Monaco, offered a technical contribution to the matter, showcasing that Finance can deal with Nature. The conference “Bridging Natural Capital and the Brain Economy for a Sustainable Future”, organised by the BNP Paribas Group in partnership with the Centre Scientifique de Monaco and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, reaffirmed the crucial role of the economic side of Sustainability to protect the living-being biosphere, of which humans are integral part.

The Economic Transition, in fact, is symbiotically linked to human creativity. Three main workshops used a multidisciplinary approach to involve different fields of expertise. Regenerative economy, digital intelligence, policy making are pillars of this Sustainable Transformation. On one hand, financial instruments like green bonds, carbon markets, and blended finance are encouraging the access to Natural Capital. On the other hand, a smart use of Artificial Intelligence, Big and Open Data, is increasingly put at the service of Biodiversity preservation and Climate action. Last but not least, decision makers, education preachers, researchers and philanthropic leaders are being joining forces to trigger a global nature-positive domino. The debate offered the audience a set of meaningful inputs in view of COP30, the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will be held in Belem, Amazonia, Brazil, from the 10th to the 21st November 2025.

Photo >> The in-person attendants to the 3rd Conference on Natural Capital (Yacht Club de Monaco, 3rd November 2025) © Centre Scientifique de Monaco & BNP Paribas Wealth Management Monaco

Françoise Puzenat, Territory Manager at BNP Paribas in Monaco, stressed the primary role of natural asset in shaping a collective responsibility fuelled by a shared concrete vision to reach sustainable goals, far from being a future without a future.

Dr Jean-Jacques Risso, President of the Scientific Centre of Monaco, stressed how nature is a driver for common prosperity through targeted investments to preserve natural ecosystems. Attribuiting value to environmental services largely contributes to the future of our economies, societies and well-being.

Dr Nathalie Hilmi, Section Head of the Department of Environmental Economics at the Centre Scientifique de Monaco, and initial promoter of the event, pointed out that building up a truly Sustainable Economy passes through a cross-knowledge approach strongly linked to Nature, as a unique condition of life, empowered by human capital (= made of knowledge, our creativity, our ability to imagine) addressed to preserve biodiversity.

Photo >> The workshop session at the 3rd Conference on Natural Capital (Yacht Club de Monaco, 3rd November 2025) © Centre Scientifique de Monaco & BNP Paribas Wealth Management Monaco

The Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association - 𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗔 - reiterated its support in organising the event putting under the spotlight ecosystem regeneration, climate resilience and inclusive development, as confirmed by Dr Yeganeh Forouheshfar, Economist and Senior Researcher at EMEA.

Professor Rym Ayadi, intervened via video conference, underlined that humans and nature are strongly interlinked within a regenerative paradigm, coming from the pristine biological ability of a living-being system to remake or renew itself continuously. Thus, in economy, this corresponds to the capability of generating value through Innovation and Research & Development not only for ourselves but for the planetary ecosystem we are integral part of, beyond any financial or business profit. This is the topic of the current economic debate which aims to prepare new models for the years to come, including the so-called Brain Capital that is the stock of brain health, skills, knowledge and creativity that drives innovation and enhances productivity. The latter is being under review to combine brain health and skills with a healthy natural environment, considering it investment items.

Dr Harris Eyre, Senior Fellow at Rice University and The University of Texas Medical Branch, underlined the importance of this new branch of the economy, starting from the idea that communities, societies and countries can then contribute to their economic growth and stability through collective brain power.

Dr Agustín Ibañez, Science Director at the Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat) within the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and Professor at GBHI-Trinity College Dublin, showcased how negative impacts affecting the natural environment, like pollution, toxins, climate change, plastics and nanoplastics, produce total and direct consequences on the body. All this, added to social inequality, lack of high-quality education, socioeconomic disparity, worsen inflammatory, immune, metabolic and cardioembolic pathologies.

Including those aspects in economic and financial models therefore represents a tangible change towards a more sustainable, and then liveable, future. ***

✒️ Maurice Abbati

• Strategic Communication Specialist, Editor in Chief, Journalist, Executive.

• Lecturer and Author in English in the field of Environmental Communication to foster Circular and Blue Economy.