Cali, 26 October 2024 – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report today highlighting solutions to the urban nature finance gap and emphasizing the need for robust data in urban nature-based solution investments.
The State of Finance for Nature in Cities report comes amid a rise in climate impacts on cities and urban areas, globally. Experts say, cities can turn to cost-effective urban nature-based solutions to improve resilience, restore habitats and reduce pollution. Investing in nature-based solutions can scale up and increase equitable access to low-carbon cooling, said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in a call to action on extreme heat earlier this year.
Yet, scaling urban nature-based solutions requires investment, which cities struggle to secure due to lack of dedicated financial mechanisms, capacity and data, according to the new report.
The report was released during the 8th Summit for Subnational Governments and Cities at the UN Biodiversity Conference, known as COP16. Published with the University of Pennsylvania, this report is a derivative of UNEP’s State of Finance for Nature series.
"Nature holds immense potential to transform our world, yet nature-based solutions remain underfunded,” said Mirey Atallah, Chief of UNEP’s Adaptation and Resilience Branch. “While US$7 trillion flow towards activities harmful to nature, only US$200 billion support nature-based solutions, and not enough is directed to cities.”
Urban areas are home to more than half of the world’s population and generate 80 per cent of the global gross domestic product. They are responsible for 70 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions and 75 per cent of resource use, globally. To minimize the environmental impact of cities, local governments need tools to increase the benefits from investing in nature, experts say.
The first step to growing investments for nature action is to measure existing investments. The report offers recommendations for cities to integrate nature-based solutions into urban financial systems and presents an expenditure framework for urban nature-based solutions. The recommendations build on lessons from cities participating in two UNEP-led projects: Generation Restoration, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development; and UrbanShift, funded by the Global Environment Facility. The framework provides standards and criteria for gathering data on local urban nature-based solutions expenditures. Once gathered, cities can use the data to demonstrate the value of investments in nature to governments, investors, and communities, and encourage mobilizing more resources.
Through simplified data collection and enhanced city-wide financial planning, the framework also empowers cities to better track and assess the impacts of nature-based solutions. Further, the framework highlights structural barriers that hinder their scaling and offers a roadmap for cities to overcome these challenges and champion nature-positive development.
"The report aligns strongly with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It shows how urban nature-based solutions are vital strategies that offer the triple benefits of enhancing biodiversity, building climate resilience, and protecting residents’ wellbeing,” said Genie Birch, co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania. “With the world gathered in Cali for COP16, this report paves the way for cities to play a transformative role in addressing the environmental challenges of our time."
About the Generation Restoration project
The Generation Restoration project (2023-2025), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), aims to scale up urban ecosystem restoration. Through this project UNEP, in partnership with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and ICLEI's Global Biodiversity Center, is collaborating with 23 cities to address key political, technical, and financial challenges to nature action. The project focuses on two main components: advocating for increased public and private investment in ecosystem restoration and job creation through nature-based solutions (NbS), and empowering city stakeholders worldwide to replicate and scale restoration initiatives. Learn more: Generation Restoration Cities | UN Decade on Restoration.
About the State of Finance for Nature in Cities Report
This report is a derivative report of the State of Finance for Nature (SFN) report series, a publication by UNEP that tracks global investments in nature-based solutions to address key environmental challenges such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and land degradation. The SFN report highlights the critical funding gaps that must be addressed to scale NbS and meet global environmental targets. The first SFN in Cities was published in early 2023 to outline gaps and opportunities for nature-based solution financing in cities and actions that local governments, financial stakeholders, the private sector and knowledge partners can take to scale up investments for nature in cities.
For more information about Generation Restoration, contact:
Sharon Gil, Programme Management Officer, Cities Unit, UNEP, at sharon.gil@un.org
Irene Fagotto, Project Manager, Generation Restoration, UNEP, at irene.fagotto@un.org
