Insights from the Cities Talk Nature Conference

May 15, 2023 | News

Climate Alliance represented Invest4Nature at the “Cities Talk Nature Conference: Unlocking the Potential of Underutilized Urban Areas” organized by the Interlace project on Thursday, May 11th, and Friday, May 12th, 2023, in Chemnitz, Germany. The conference centered around the crucial role of creating and preserving urban nature in the face of climate and biodiversity crises. While underutilized spaces like brownfields, abandoned industrial areas, oversized roads and parking lots, as well as roofs and facades of buildings, offer unique opportunities to enhance urban nature, such transformations also bring forth new challenges.

The conference provided a platform for German local authorities such as the city of Chemnitz and the Ruhr region, as well as numerous European and Latin-American municipalities, to present their best practice examples of nature-based solutions (NBS). These examples included green roofs, river renaturation, and the concept of “urban nature” and “industrial nature,” where former industrial sites are left uncultivated to allow nature to regenerate on its own.

One of the workshops at the conference focused on the policy instruments for implementing NBS and highlighted the Urban Governance Atlas developed by the Interlace project. This interactive online database showcases approximately 250 good practices related to policy, governance instruments, urban ecosystem restoration, green space planning, and financial instruments. The Atlas serves as an excellent resource for Invest4Nature.

So how can cities engage private stakeholders in the implementation of nature-based solutions? Participating public authorities acknowledged that their focus is typically on public spaces, and partnerships with the private sector in implementing NBS are not well-developed. However, three instruments were suggested to improve this situation:

• the development of public regulations that encourage the business sector to adopt more NBS,
• the establishment of financial support and incentives to enable private stakeholders to implement NBS,
• and effective communication to convince private stakeholders of the positive impact of NBS on their businesses.

In light of these points, the work carried out by Invest4Nature becomes even more significant. It is evident that both public and private stakeholders need a better understanding of the financial benefits associated with NBS to create a market for such solutions.

Stay tuned to Invest4Nature’s activities!

Author and Photo Credits: Hélène Rizzotti, Climate Alliance