Canada’s new nature strategy: an SLB proposal

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Recently, Prime Minister Carney launched Canada's new nature strategy, targeting protection of 30% of land and 28% of marine areas by 2030. We examine how bond markets, and Sustainability-Linked Bonds in particular, could play a critical financing role.

Canada is already an active green bond issuer (CAD 17.5bn outstanding across five bonds), but nature conservation has received only a small share of proceeds. SLBs offer a complementary route: tying coupon adjustments to performance targets rather than ringfencing capital for specific projects.

We propose a 10-year SLB linked to Canada's two 2030 conservation targets, with a stretch goal of 30% marine protection, combined in a dual step-up/step-down structure. Using 25bps adjustments per SPT and illustrative probabilities, AFII's pricing approach gives a positive combined option value (upfront: 0.47%, running: 5.4bps), suggesting such a bond could price at a lower yield than a conventional equivalent.