by IEEP and UNEP-WCMC
Climate risks in Europe are escalating twice as fast as the global average, and faster than society’s preparedness. Current policies that focus on climate change mitigation are vital, but so too are those that deliver urgently needed, systemic climate adaptation. NbS at landscape scales are essential for building climate resilience, but their uptake is often blocked by fragmented governance, limited capacity to design and implement NbS projects, and poor access to timely, suitable funding.
In May and July 2025, NetworkNature convened experts from research, policy and the wider NbS community to discuss policy options to help overcome barriers to greater use of NbS for adaptation. Here is a summary of the four priority policy options that were identified for advancing NbS within adaptation planning frameworks. These policies options will be elaborated further in a forthcoming brief !
Priority Option 1 – Governance, implementation capacity and scaling up of NbS
As NbS efforts expand across administrative and sectoral boundaries, they bring together a broader mix of stakeholders. The scale of some NbS can amplify coordination challenges, land-use conflicts and competing interests – although many large scale non-NbS adaptation efforts can face similar challenges. While strong examples of landscape-scale NbS already exist, such as the Netherlands’ “Room for the River”, these remain the exception. Most regions still struggle to link local initiatives, access suitable land, and establish the cross-territorial frameworks needed for coherent, long-term action.
Governance systems that better support collaboration, capacity building and shared decision-making unlock wider adoption of NbS for adaptation. This could include empowering local practitioners through regional support units, practical toolkits, and on-the-ground implementation advisors. Strengthening cross-ministerial coordination and developing shared metrics for progress could also help scale up the use of NbS to increase resilience. Tools like Arcadia’s transformational change Self-Assessment Scorecard can help regions diagnose gaps, navigate trade-offs and build collective ownership of resilient, landscape-scale NbS pathways.
Priority Option 2 – Improve EU funding allocation, capacity, and accessibility for NbS
Cohesion Policy1 represents one of the EU’s most powerful levers for climate adaptation, yet only 3% of its budget currently supports climate adaptation. Despite clear adaptation needs, the complex funding rules, limited technical capacity, and project selection systems that are poorly aligned with climate objectives limit the ability of managing authorities to implement. Administrative burdens and fragmented reporting systems further limit the ability of regional actors, particularly in vulnerable, under-resourced areas, to develop and implement eligible NbS projects.
Unlocking the full potential of Cohesion Policy requires strengthening regional capacity, simplifying access to funds, and improving the monitoring of adaptation outcomes. Targeted technical assistance, streamlined procedures, and fast-track mechanisms for high-risk regions can help overcome barriers, while performance-based funding in the next programming period offers an opportunity to integrate clearer adaptation indicators. Collaborative platforms such as the NetworkNature Hubs already demonstrate how knowledge exchange, peer learning, and practical tools can enhance regional readiness and expand the uptake of NbS.
Priority Option 3 – Unlock Innovative finance and insurance for NbS against systemic risks
While EU countries are eager to expand private investment in nature, persistent barriers including misaligned subsidies and perceived high risks continue to restrict capital flows. Emerging instruments, such as EU-level nature credits, offer significant potential to reward measurable biodiversity gains and channel private finance into restoration, but only if supported by strong, credible standards that prevent greenwashing and ensure actions go beyond regulatory baselines. Without such integrity safeguards, nature credits risk becoming compliance loopholes rather than genuine drivers of ecological recovery.
The insurance sector represents a particularly promising yet underutilised actor in the transition to greater financial flows towards NbS for adaptation. As climate-related losses escalate, insurers have a direct financial interest in reducing systemic risks—and restored ecosystems can serve as cost-effective natural buffers to the impacts of climate change. By investing in NbS, purchasing risk-reduction benefits, and shaping robust verification frameworks, insurers could become major early investors in high-integrity nature credits and long-term adaptation measures. Initiatives such as the MERLIN Project illustrate how blended finance tools, public–private partnerships, and innovative risk-sharing instruments can accelerate this shift.
Priority Option 4 – Monitoring, tracking and performance-based accountability
The EU currently lacks a standardised set of indicators to measure adaptation outcomes, ecosystem health, and co-benefits, and many NbS projects operate without sufficient data or sustained monitoring systems. Limited technical capacity, inconsistent reporting practices, and narrowly focused metrics further undermine the ability of authorities to evaluate effectiveness, learn from outcomes, and make evidence-based investment decisions.
Accountability could be considerable strengthened through a coordinated EU-wide approach, including a centralised adaptation expenditure tracking system and a standardised way for banks and other financial institutions to identify and report on their investments in NbS. There is also a considerable opportunity to linking funding through performance-based delivery models to measurable progress through clear milestones, Key Performance Indicators, and long-term monitoring plans, ideally extending for at least a decade.
The options to scale up NbS in Europe are clear: strengthening governance, improving funding accessibility, unlocking innovative finance, and establishing accountability systems. Watch this space for our upcoming policy note that elaborates on these policy options to support policymakers and practitioners to deliver on scaled-up NbS across Europe.
- Cohesion policy represents around one third of the current EU budget. The policy aims at decreasing disparities between EU regions, and places focus on less-developed regions undergoing industrial transition, and areas facing natural or demographic challenges.
