NbS Finance for a Just Transition to a Nature Positive Economy

• Drive sustainable economic growth by supporting a nature-positive economy (e.g. circular business models, nature-based enterprises, eco-tourism). 
• Enhance the vital natural capital and ecosystem services that underpin our businesses and wider economies (e.g. water regulation, soil fertility, carbon storage). 
• Build business resilience and de-risk investments by increasing resilience to climate and environmental shocks (e.g. resilient landscapes protecting infrastructure and supply chains). 
• Provide cost-effective, resilient green infrastructure that can replace or complement grey infrastructure (e.g. natural flood management instead of engineered defenses). 
• Support a just and inclusive transition by engaging communities and ensuring fair distribution of benefits (e.g. community-led NbS, local employment schemes). 
• Create green jobs and livelihoods (e.g. ecosystem restoration projects, sustainable land management, NbS innovation sectors). 
• Help align businesses and private finance with sustainability goals (e.g. Environmental and Social Governance frameworks, taxonomy-aligned investments, corporate nature strategies). 

Explore nbs case studies

• Mobilise public and private finance for NbS by creating enabling frameworks to drive demand and uptake (e.g. incentives, subsidies, blended finance mechanisms, green bonds). 
• De-risk and scale investment in NbS through clear regulations, standards, and long-term policy certainty. 
• Drive the alignment of financial flows with sustainability goals by providing clear and stable regulatory structures (e.g. EU taxonomy, ESG criteria, and nature-positive investment strategies). 
• Support a just and inclusive transition by ensuring equitable access to funding, jobs, and benefits across regions and communities. 
• Stimulate innovation and market development for NbS (e.g. support for SMEs, start-ups, and new business models). 
• Integrate NbS into economic and sectoral policies (e.g. agriculture, infrastructure, regional development, climate policy). 

Nature Restoration Regulation  

The Nature Restoration Regulation sets out the first legally binding, EU-wide targets for ecosystem restoration across land and sea, making it a cornerstone for scaling NbS. It provides a strong framework for integrating NbS into national and local planning especially, urban greening, biodiversity recovery, and climate adaptation, while requiring Member States to implement restoration plans that drive coordinated action and highlight the need for investment, governance, and technical capacity at scale.  

EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy Regulation 

The EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy is a key tool for directing public and private investment toward sustainable activities, including NbS. By setting clear criteria and requiring that activities contribute to environmental objectives without causing harm, it helps mainstream NbS in sectors like water management, urban development, and climate adaptation. Its emphasis on using nature-based or green infrastructure solutions where possible strengthens the role of NbS in resilience planning, while also encouraging greater private sector investment. However, gaps in the coverage of certain NbS activities highlight the need for further development to fully unlock their financing potential. 

EU Green Bonds Regulation 

The European Green Bonds Regulation strengthens the credibility and transparency of sustainable investments, helping channel more private capital toward environmentally beneficial activities, including NbS. By linking bond proceeds to EU Taxonomy criteria, it ensures that funded projects genuinely contribute to climate adaptation, mitigation, and environmental objectives, with NbS such as flood management and green infrastructure explicitly supported. This creates new financing opportunities for NbS at scale, particularly by attracting investors seeking reliable green assets. However, its voluntary nature and reliance on existing taxonomy criteria mean that gaps in NbS coverage may still limit its full potential to drive investment in all relevant nature-based approaches. 

 EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) 

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) increase transparency and accountability around corporate environmental impacts, creating strong incentives for businesses to address biodiversity loss and climate risks. By requiring companies to disclose nature-related impacts and align their strategies with climate and biodiversity goals, these policies can drive investment in NbS to mitigate negative impacts and enhance resilience. When combined with due diligence obligations across value chains, they encourage companies to integrate NbS into business models and risk management practices, helping shift private sector behaviour toward more sustainable and nature-positive outcomes. 

EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)  

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) improves transparency in financial markets by requiring investors and financial institutions to disclose how sustainability risks and impacts are integrated into their decisions. This creates indirect but strong incentives to invest in NbS, as these align with environmental and social objectives and can help reduce negative impacts captured through reporting requirements. By shaping how sustainable financial products are defined and marketed, the regulation can steer capital toward NbS, although the lack of specific guidance on NbS limits its full potential to systematically support these approaches. 

EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change  

The EU Adaptation Strategy provides a framework for building a climate-resilient Europe by integrating adaptation measures across sectors, governance levels, and planning processes. It strongly recognises NbS as cost-effective tools for climate adaptation, including ecosystem restoration, urban greening, and sustainable land and water management. By supporting knowledge sharing, capacity building, and investment, the strategy helps scale up NbS to reduce climate risks, strengthen resilience, and deliver wider benefits for biodiversity, communities, and economies.  

How policy instruments support nbs