The economics of nature-based solutions: cost-benefit analysis, market development and funding

The overall project aim of Invest4Nature is to gain a better understanding of the economic and financial performance of Nature Based Solutions (NBS), considering their role for mitigation as well as climate risk reduction, to promote upscaling and investments in NBS, and to accelerate market uptake.

Funded by the EU Horizon Europe programme, Invest4Nature strives to further increase our understanding of the multiple benefits and roles of NBS, to raise awareness of their value and to demonstrate the potential of investment pathways for NBS.

Invest4Nature seeks to support the alignment of public policies and funding with private financing by establishing an NBS Investment Community, facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogues, test and highlight good practices and provide reliable data from real world case studies. Evidence will be accessible through an open-source database on costs and benefits of NBS, a Decision Support toolbox and a communication tool for promoting NBS amongst city authorities, planners, developers and the public. These ouputs will be available on the Oppla platform.

Five existing NBS cases covering urban, rural, mountaineous and coastal landscapes from across Europe (Norway, Denmark, Polands, Austria and Portugal), representing different challenges and typology of NBS, make up the core in Invest4Nature. Invest4Nature uses these cases and Living Labs to inform and shape frameworks that are operational on the ground, where they contribute with in-depth knowledge and evidence of NBS economics and financing. This is carried out in a process of co-development workspaces. In addition, the cases and Living Labs provide testbeds for solutions and tests of validity and applicability of innovative business models and investor readiness.

Invest4Nature consortium partners include:
1.JOANNEUM RESEARCH, (JR) - Coordinator
2.Steinbeis 2i GmbH (S2I)
3.Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)
4.Horizon NUA Innovation (HNUA)
5.Aarhus Universitet (AU)
6.Climate Alliance (CA)
7.Oppla EEIG (OPPLA)
8.Engineering Ingegneria Informatica SPA (ENG)
9.Empresa Municipal de Ambiente de Cascais EM SA (EMAC)
10.Melomy Advisory IK (MA)
11.Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui cambiamenti climatici (CMCC)
12.Aarhus Kommune (AAKS)
13.Klimabündnis Tirol (KB)
14.Urzad Miasta Poznania (UMP)
15.U-Sentric BVBA, (US)