Nature-based Solutions, Green Infrastructure

This report aims to identify strategic actions to increase investment in NBS for climate resilience in SSA by evaluating over a decade of NBS project investment and assessing a range of policy, financial, institutional, social, and technical barriers to adoption. We examined historical and projected data for climate hazards in the region to provide background on the challenges SSA faces.

The built environment sector is critical to achieving a nature-positive future, as it is responsible for nearly 30% of biodiversity loss globally, 50% of global raw materials extraction, 40% of waste streams, and 40% of CO2 emissions.

 

By 2025, the construction industry is predicted to generate 2.2 billion tons of waste annually. Of this, approximately 77 million tonnes (35%) end up in landfills each year.

 

This report, as part of the Compendium for City Good Practice series, highlights Paris's innovative approach to climate resilience through the strategic integration of nature into urban environments.

Nature as infrastructure has the potential to be a transformative concept for development. It goes beyond nature-based solutions or mitigating the impact of human development on nature. Infrastructure is traditionally defined as the organizational structures and facilities that allow for the operation of society. It should now be clear that nature is an inseparable part of it. The degradation of nature and biodiversity over the past decades thus poses an existential risk as much as climate change. This must be reversed quickly, together with climate change.

 

This report was first published before the final decision on the Global Biodiversity Framework was made at the CBD meeting in December 2022. Some important issues relating to implementation of Target 3 are still being discussed; the text remains ambiguous in places and it will take several months to interpret and agree ways forward. However, the practical guidance outlined below has not been affected by revisions at the CBD Conference of Parties.

This guide is about how to plan and implement the new global target for effectively and equitably conserving at least 30% of the Earth by 2030. The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022, includes Target 3, the “30x30” target.

 

The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical framework to guide governments in catalyzing and scaling up public and private investment in Blue Carbon as part of their blue economy development. It does this by describing in detail a Blue Carbon Readiness Framework, a step-by-step, well-illustrated guide with simple checklists. Client countries can use the illustrations and checklists to determine their readiness to catalyze and scale up investment in blue carbon credit finance. The Blue Carbon Readiness Framework consists of three pillars: 1. Data and Analytics; 2.