Public International Funding of Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation: A Landscape Assessment

The report finds that public international funding for nature-based solutions for adaptation (NbSA) is relatively small, totaling US$3.88.7 billion in 2018. This amount represents only 0.61.4 percent of total climate finance flows. Funding is dominated by grants and a small number of bilateral donors, with Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Central Asia receiving about 50 percent of the total. Key barriers to scaling NbSA include the lack of common definitions, a dearth of metrics to value benefits, and a misalignment between donor funding instruments and the long-term operational costs of projects. The authors recommend scaling and better tracking ODA, aligning funding with project needs, developing standardized valuation metrics, and supporting the development of project pipelines in developing countries.

• Public international funding for nature-based solutions for adaptation (NbSA) remains low, estimated at US$3.88.7 billion in 2018. This constitutes approximately 0.61.4 percent of total climate finance flows and 1.53.4 percent of public climate finance flows for that year.
• NbSA funding in 2018 was primarily provided by a few bilateral donors, specifically Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Sweden. Major multilateral channels included the European Union, Asian Development Bank, Green Climate Fund, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Geographically, about 50 percent of this funding went to countries in South and Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Funding modalities are heavily reliant on grants, which accounted for up to 85 percent of funds deployed to developing countries in 2018. The report suggests that using a wider variety of instruments could better catalyze private capital through public concessional finance.
• Several systemic barriers hinder the scaling of NbSA, including the absence of a common definition for adaptation-focused NbS, a lack of metrics to quantify and value benefits, and a mismatch between donor funding (mostly grants) and the need for long-term operational funding.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Public International Funding of Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation: A Landscape Assessment. https://www.wri.org/research/public-international-funding-nature-based-solutions-adaptation-landscape-assessment

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Public International Funding of Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation: A Landscape Assessment. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/public-international-funding-nature-based-solutions-adaptation-landscape-assessment.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Public International Funding of Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation: A Landscape Assessment |url=https://www.wri.org/research/public-international-funding-nature-based-solutions-adaptation-landscape-assessment |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendpublic, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Public International Funding of Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation: A Landscape Assessment}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/public-international-funding-nature-based-solutions-adaptation-landscape-assessment}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }