This Nature^Squared report highlights that cities are affected and influence climate change. For this reason, they are looking for ways to develop smart solutions to develop more resilience. Nature-based solutions make it possible to develop green urban areas that meet the growing need for sustainability, while reducing the environmental footprint of cities. However, implementing such solutions is often difficult due to the high implementation costs. Public funding is often not enough and private investment is just starting to grow, so developing innovative funding mechanisms is crucial.
This report explores four exemplary case studies from Copenhagen, Bologna, Hamburg and Glasgow, which argue that public funding remains the key to engaging (private) stakeholders and implementing nature-based solutions on a large scale. Building on these examples, the next step is to develop more affordable financial arrangements to augment nature-based solutions. This requires an active role of governments, municipalities and other public actors, moving beyond the financing of nature-based solutions and moving towards becoming an effective process manager in the development of new financial mechanisms.