Nature Positive Financing the Tranisition in Cities

Many opportunities exist for cities that work to reduce the negative impact of urban development in nature; yet, there are significant barriers to this transition. Nature Positive: Guidelines for the Transition in Cities (2024) highlighted the enabling factors cities need to prioritize when preparing a fertile ground for mainstreaming nature and ensuring nature- positive finance is well integrated throughout urban development. Critical action fronts, such as available nature expertise, strengthened policy and regulatory environments, and the development of a nature action plan, can be resolved more easily than those related to unclear taxonomies and nature valuation, which require dedicated multilateral collaboration. Dialogue and consultations with financial institutions have illustrated a range of limitations with nature finance in cities. Long project implementation and payback horizons and high dependence on project context to develop a bespoke solution are particularly important in the creation of nature-based solutions in cities. Difficulties with maintaining a portfolio of highly impactful nature- positive projects is in large part due to the lack of comparability, replicability and scalability of projects and solutions across regions and time.4.1 Limitations to nature finance in cities 4.2 Limitations in cities’ enabling environment Overview of key enablers of a nature-positive transition in cities TABLE 2 Enablers Governance Policy FinancingData and analyticsStakeholder engagement Capabilities Definition Structures, units, Aficial roles and processes in place to oversee nature-related effortsIncentives and requirements that guide and promote the implementation of nature-positive solutionsResources and mechanisms to obtain sufficient and timely funding to implement nature-postme actionsProcesses and systems to gather and manage data on nature risks and impacts and to use analyses to inform decision- makingStrategies and channels used to engage relevant stakeholders and communicate the benefits of nature-positive solutionsAvailability and talent of human resources and adoption of a culture of innovation and continuous research Subcomponents Governance structure and processesPolicy and regulationsFunding Data managementCommunication Human capital Financing processesRisk and impact analyticsCommunity engagementResearch and innovation 27 Nature Positive: Financing the Transition in Cities