Nature based solutions will build resilience through adaptation

During this London Climate Action Week , the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) held the latest of its Roundtable Series ‘Scaling up adaptation finance in infrastructure’ at the offices of the Howden Re Insurance Group in Aldgate in London. The roundtable was co-hosted by the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) & the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) .

?These roundtables are aimed at bridging the gap between the built environment community and key decision-makers in adaptation financing.

?The World Economic Forum estimates $44 trillion of economic value generation – more than half of the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services, and is therefore at risk with the degradation of nature.

?Nature, the roundtable heard, is an exposed asset, which must be protected, invested in, and insured.

?From conversations at this roundtable and throughout the week, it was clear that while nature-based solutions for adaptation are on the agenda, they are not far enough up the agenda. Access to finance and the role of the insurance industry were highlighted as key actions.

?If insurance is key to de-risking the transition infrastructure, it is the skills for delivering nature based solutions that come with the built environment professions that will be critical do deliver climate positive outcomes.

?At our roundtable, we were told that insurance was an efficient financial instrument and risk management tool that can enhance resilience and improve sustainable management of ecosystems and the economies and communities that depend on them.

?We were also told that climate finance was critical to addressing climate change because of the large-scale investments that are needed to transition to a low-carbon global economy and to help societies build resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

?In developing countries and across the global south, where an increased majority by 2050 (85%) of the global population will live, institutional and governance challenges are as important to climate action as the skills for delivering it.

?In terms of finance, multilateral funds that developing countries can access are plenty and include the?Green Climate Fund?(GCF), the?Global Environment Facility?(GEF), and the?Adaptation Fund?(AF). These funds were established as financial instruments of the?United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)?to provide resources to developing countries.

?We must hear more at future London Climate Action weeks about how climate impacts and access to finance are disproportionate for those, women and children and those most economically disadvantaged. And we need to hear this from voices in the global south, not the privileged elites of the global north who again were the dominant voices and attendees in London.

?There will always be a need for a top down strategy for delivering climate action and adaptation, but this top-down strategy must be linked with bottom up engagement, supported by the integration of nature based solutions into our capital and operational activities driven by investments attracted by business cases that truly value the benefits that nature provide to our survival.