Overview:

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have gained increasing recognition as a vital tool for advancing climate adaptation and strengthening the resilience of infrastructure systems. Rooted in the principle of working with nature rather than against it, NbS have the potential to cost-effectively deliver around 30 per cent of the mitigation required by 2030 to keep global temperature rise below 2°C⁴.

Despite their significant potential, the financing and implementation of NbS remain well below the scale required, with investments heavily concentrated in High Income Countries (HICs) even though Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) are often more vulnerable to climate impacts. For example, while the global market for NbS is valued at between US$ 125 billion and US$ 300 billion annually, it receives only about US$ 200 billion in investments each year, with the private sector contributing a mere 18 per cent⁵. Further, the absence of standardized approaches for measuring and reporting NbS impacts, coupled with limited technical expertise and methodologies for assessing their benefits, continues to constrain investment and scaling. At the same time, in addition to the much-needed investment, we also urgently need new ways of thinking about how infrastructure is designed, built, and maintained.

To that effect, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are hosting this dialogue to provide key insights for planning, implementation, and scaling of NbS for building resilience of infrastructure systems and communities.

Session Objective

CDRI and UNEP are convening this dialogue under the ambit of World Environment Day with the objective of this session is to launch and disseminate the findings emerging from the GIR 2025 Working Paper on Nature-based Solutions: Partnering with the Environment as well as to start a dialogue on how to mainstream integrating NbS in infrastructure development. 

About the CDRI GIR 2025 Report 

CDRI released the GIR 2025 report at COP30 in Brazil, featuring NbS as one of its core components. Reflecting on the challenges, opportunities, and approaches for harnessing their true potential, the report also provides a detailed deep dive into this component through an accompanying working paper - Nature-based Solutions: Partnering with the Environment. These two publications by CDRI highlight how NbS can offer a cost-effective alternative to traditional grey infrastructure and strengthen resilience measures. In fact, recent assessments indicate that they typically cost around 50 per cent less upfront than built alternatives while delivering equal or greater benefits⁶. One of the best options highlighted in GIR 2025 thus, caters to hybrid (grey green) approaches, which combine the predictability and protective capacity of engineered infrastructure with the adaptability, regenerative qualities, and multiple co-benefits of natural systems. To move beyond isolated pilot projects and scale adoption, the report also identifies four key priorities: strengthening institutional capacity, establishing enabling governance frameworks, building technical expertise, and mobilizing adequate financing.  

Together, these strategies provide a practical roadmap for the selection, design, implementation, and long-term maintenance of NbS. 

About UNEP’s work on Resilient infrastructure through NBS 

In 2018, UNEP led the formation of the Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership (SIP), a network of organizations working together to promote the integration of sustainability and resilience into infrastructure planning, financing, and delivery at the global, regional, and national levels. During the fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) in 2022, Members States adopted a resolution on Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure (UNEA/EA.5/L.15). In partnership with UNOPS and the University of Oxford, UNEP launched the Nature-based infrastructure report in 2023. It summarizes five functions through which nature-based infrastructure can provide benefits with respect to the provision of infrastructure services. 

Recognizing the urgent need to integrate NbS into existing and new infrastructure for resilience building, UNEP supports countries in designing and piloting the integration of innovative NBS approaches with grey infrastructure through Nature-based Solutions Innovation Accelerator (NBS-IA). This 5-year initiative aims to accelerate the uptake of NbS approaches to enhance infrastructure resilience. Two Calls for Proposals were launched in April 2026 to support countries to identify, design and prepare concreate actions on the ground. In partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), NBS-IA also seeks to remove policy and governance barriers and create coherent enabling environment to mobilize investment at scale.