Invest4Nature is an EU-funded project that contributes to the creation of a market for nature-based solutions. A group of 15 partners from 11 European countries prepare the grounds for investments in nature-based solutions by evaluating its benefits and economic performance.
The world is experiencing a severe climate and biodiversity crisis. Nature-based solutions (NBS) can be a powerful tool to tackle this challenge by reducing the risks of climate change driven events such as flooding or heat waves. The benefits of nature based solutions are not limited to climate protection, but can also increase well-being for citizens and create opportunities for employment, offering multiple benefits environmental, social, and economic value creation.
Despite the multiple benefits of nature-based solutions, they are not systematically understood. There is currently no standard method to calculate the economic and financial benefits that can be used to back their investment case. The financial valuation in the various areas of environment, society, or economy is an important indicator for financial stakeholders such as investors and insurances in building support for nature-based solutions.
Invest4Nature will:
Create an evaluation framework of nature-based solutions to allow sound cost-benefit analyses and the development of business models
Provide evidence on the benefits in coastal, urban, rural and mountainous scenarios by evaluating 5 NBS Living Labs in Norway, Denmark, Poland, Austria and Portugal, each with already existing NBS cases
Develop a Decision Support (DS) toolbox to facilitate comparison of grey/green solutions in meeting the needs of investors and selection of NBS investments with the highest social impacts.