Assessing finance for nature-based solutions to climate change

This research paper by the Stockholm Environment Institute assesses international development finance for nature-based solutions (NbS) to climate change from 2016 to 2020. Using OECD DAC data, the authors identify a declining trend in climate finance that also targets biodiversity objectives and highlight significant funding gaps for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The paper concludes that current financial reporting is insufficient to verify whether these investments deliver tangible biodiversity benefits.

• Between 2016 and 2020, total funding commitments for 'NbS-like' activities—defined as finance targeting both climate change and biodiversity objectives—amounted to approximately US$ 14.66 billion for developing countries globally, averaging US$ 2.93 billion per year. Of these commitments, 71% were grants and 28% were concessional loans.
• There has been a steady decline in commitments for NbS-like activities since a peak of roughly US$ 4.83 billion in 2017, falling to approximately US$ 1.03 billion in 2020. Similarly, the share of total climate finance using NbS-like approaches decreased from nearly 32% in 2017 to 16.7% in 2019, before a slight rise in 2020.
• France, Norway, and the United States are the largest bilateral funders of NbS for climate change in developing countries, while the European Union is a major multilateral funder. Regionally, Africa received the most commitments at around US$ 4.19 billion, followed by Asia and the Middle East (US$ 2.87 billion) and South and Central America and the Caribbean (US$ 2.76 billion).
• Finance for NbS-like activities is disproportionately low for the most vulnerable nations. SIDS received just over US$ 673 million (under 5% of global NbS commitments), and LDCs received just over US$ 2.44 billion (17% of global NbS finance). Some countries, such as the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, received less than US$ 100,000 over five years despite managing vast marine territories.
• A qualitative review of project documents in SIDS and LDCs suggests that biodiversity benefits are rarely defined in detail, and project activities are often not explicitly designed to reflect ecosystem challenges. The authors found it difficult to link climate finance tagged for biodiversity with tangible ecological benefits, noting that biodiversity often appears as an objective without being integrated into project design.
• The authors highlight a massive disparity between finance for NbS and expenditures that harm biodiversity. They note that annual government expenditures on activities harmful to biodiversity (such as agricultural, forestry, and fisheries subsidies) were estimated at US$ 274–542 billion in 2019, which is 100 to 200 times greater than the authors' estimate of NbS-like finance for climate change for the same year.

APA

Atteridge, A., Bhatpuria, D., Macura, B., Barquet, K., & Green, J. (2022). Assessing finance for nature-based solutions to climate change. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sei-wp-assessing-finance-nature-based-solutions-2022.pdf

Chicago

Atteridge, Aaron, Dhyey Bhatpuria, Biljana Macura, Karina Barquet, and Jonathan Green. Assessing finance for nature-based solutions to climate change. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sei-wp-assessing-finance-nature-based-solutions-2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Atteridge |first1=Aaron |last2=Bhatpuria |first2=Dhyey |last3=Macura |first3=Biljana |last4=Barquet |first4=Karina |last5=Green |first5=Jonathan |title=Assessing finance for nature-based solutions to climate change |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=November 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sei-wp-assessing-finance-nature-based-solutions-2022.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{atteridge2022assessing, author = {Atteridge, Aaron and Bhatpuria, Dhyey and Macura, Biljana and Barquet, Karina and Green, Jonathan}, title = {{Assessing finance for nature-based solutions to climate change}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sei-wp-assessing-finance-nature-based-solutions-2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }