Nordic nature finance

Nature targets are set.How to fund them is not.

We help build the market that funds them, across the Nordics and beyond.

Founders’ records, in numbers

  • 20

    years in carbon finance

    Kjetil Selmer-Olsen and Per Otto Larsen

  • 34

    years in energy and carbon markets

    Per Otto Larsen

  • 106

    sustainable finance frameworks reviewed

    Bjarni Herrera, at CICERO Shades of Green and S&P Global

  • 94.6

    EUR billion issued under them

    Bjarni Herrera, at CICERO Shades of Green and S&P Global

Stalling points in the market

  • “Our council promised to restore as much land as we build on. Nobody said how.”
  • “We’ve disclosed our nature risks and set targets. Nobody can tell us what’s next.”
  • “I can’t value something that won’t deliver for five years.”
  • “One project is too small to insure, and nobody has pooled them.”

Governments and municipalities

Policy and methods for balancing built land with restored land, and for deciding who pays.

State-owned and private companies

Help shaping projects that meet nature targets or make up for land taken.

Investors and insurers

Evidence from pilots that nature outcomes arrive, and help pooling projects to a size worth financing and insuring.

Missing parts of a nature market

  • 01

    Policy and methods

  • 02

    Projects worth funding

  • 03

    Pooled finance

  • 04

    Pilots with developers

Work with us through grants, consortia, studies or co-funded pilots, with three founders from carbon and sustainable finance.

See the work in full

Nordic nature finance

Hard nature problemsare market problems.

For public bodies, companies, investors and developers deciding how to fund and meet nature goals.

Each missing part, in full

01

Policy and methods

Rules a nature market can run on.

Governments, municipalities and agencies get answers on how to balance built land with restored land, and whether a fee or a market fits. International methods are adapted for Nordic use rather than reinvented.

Area neutrality · Nature accounts · Fees and markets · Methods · Standards

02

Projects worth funding

Nature targets turned into projects.

State-owned and private companies with nature targets, or land to compensate for, get help shaping projects that meet them. Claims are built to the draft standards.

Restoration · Compensation · Nature credits · Claims · Supply chains

03

Pooled finance

Small projects, pooled to a size worth backing.

Investors and insurers get help pooling nature projects into portfolios large enough to finance and insure. Developers get help finding capital for the three to seven years before a project delivers.

Pooling · Upfront capital · Delivery risk · Insurance · Blended finance

04

Pilots with developers

Nature credits beside carbon credits.

Restoration developers sell the carbon, and their buyers get the nature free. Pilots test selling both. We are preparing a first pilot on a restoration project.

Restoration · Issuance · Verification · Landowners · Buyers

Four ways to work with us

  • Grants and consortia

    Grant applicants and consortia get a partner who knows the international rules and the Nordic market.

  • Commissioned studies

    Companies and public bodies commission studies. They range from what a nature target means in practice to which policy tool fits.

  • Co-funded pilots

    Investors and insurers co-fund pilots and see whether the nature outcome arrives before anyone has to price it.

  • Project partnerships

    Developers and landowners join pilots as partners rather than payers. They bring the land and the project.

Your challenge, worked through

  1. 01

    What blocks it, in writing

    After a first conversation, a short note names what is blocking your challenge and which parties would have to move to solve it.

  2. 02

    The right people, together

    You meet the developers, buyers, investors, insurers or public bodies the answer needs. They come from three founders’ networks across the Nordics and beyond.

  3. 03

    Method and funding, lined up

    You get a method built to the emerging standards for measuring the nature outcome, and help raising grants, consortium funding or co-funding.

  4. 04

    Something in use

    Each piece of work is scoped to end in something in use, such as a pilot on the ground or a policy proposal. Its lessons are written down.

Earlier work, credited by name

Carbon credit client book carried into Seevard, 2026

In January 2026 Kjetil Selmer-Olsen and Per Otto Larsen moved to Seevard, which took over CEMAsys’s carbon credit clients and contracts. It works in carbon removal and blue carbon.

Nord Pool, first to trade EU allowances, 2005

Per Otto Larsen managed business development at Nord Pool from 2000 to 2007, the years it became the first exchange to trade EU emission allowances.

UN credits cancelled for Nordic companies, from 2007

At CO2focus, Kjetil Selmer-Olsen led sales and Per Otto Larsen led operations. The company measured clients’ emissions, then bought and cancelled UN-certified credits for them, so none could be resold.

Forestry and biodiversity on 740,000 hectares

In 2023, Bjarni Herrera worked on green finance for Tornator’s forests in Finland, Estonia and Romania. Tornator has since raised EUR 350 million.

Green bonds opened to biodiversity and oceans

In 2022, Bjarni Herrera worked on the International Finance Corporation’s green bond framework as it first added biodiversity, ocean and water. USD 4.35 billion has been raised under it.

Nordic nature finance

Carbon markets showedwhat trust is worth.

Three founders from carbon and sustainable finance, with an advisory board forming now.

Three founders, deciding together

  • Kjetil Selmer-Olsen

    Co-founder and Board Member

    Founded the youth magazine Spirit in 1994. Co-founded CO2focus, later CEMAsys, in 2007 and led its sales and marketing as Nordic companies began buying UN-certified credits for their emissions. At Seevard since January 2026, working in carbon removal and blue carbon.

    Spirit · CO2focus · CEMAsys · Seevard

  • Per Otto Larsen

    Co-founder and CEO

    Spent fourteen years in oil, gas and power markets before carbon, at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Saga Petroleum and Nord Pool. Co-founded CO2focus, later CEMAsys, in 2007 and led its product development and operations. Certified European financial analyst. Trained as a cavalry officer.

    Saga Petroleum · Nord Pool · CO2focus · CEMAsys · Seevard

  • Bjarni Herrera

    Co-founder and Chairman

    First head of sustainability at KPMG Iceland, then chief operating officer of CICERO Shades of Green through its 2022 sale to S&P Global. Co-founded the Nordic Circular Hotspot, a pan-Nordic platform funded by Nordic Innovation from 2019 to 2024. Certified in climate risk. Runner and skier.

    Accrona · KPMG · CICERO Shades of Green · S&P Global · Nordic Circular Hotspot

Advisory board, forming now

  • Members from the Nordics and beyond

    They are drawn from the founders’ networks and named here as they accept.

  • Advice, with no formal authority

    Members challenge the founders’ thinking before decisions are made. Every decision stays with the board.

Purpose, and the lines we keep

Vision

An economy where sustainability and business are one.

Mission

We help develop the market for investment in nature, from a Nordic base.

Trust

Your name stays out of anything we publish until you agree to it in writing.

Excellence

A second founder checks every figure and claim before you see it.

Growth

Buyers who manage real risk come before goodwill money. Their demand lasts.

Focus

We take on nature finance and nothing else, whatever the fee.