Common success factors for bankable nature-based solutions
World Wide Fund (WWF)
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Abstract: Investing in nature-based solutions (NbS) will help address the ?triple challenge? that humankind is facing: climate change, biodiversity loss, and human wellbeing and development. It has become abundantly clear that failing to tackle these interconnected challenges will jeopardise our future wellbeing and our ability to keep climate change within limits that we can reasonably adapt to. However, the current level of investment in NbS, which comes predominantly from public and philanthropic funders, is nowhere near the required scope and scale to meet the challenge before us. We urgently need the private sector to help step up finance for NbS. But to do that and to plug this financing gap, we must design ?bankable? NbS that meet the specific needs of private investors. Fortunately, there are bankable NbS deals that already exist and that we can learn from. This study identified 16 projects targeting a range of ecosystems, from oceans and forests to sustainable agriculture, that had successfully attracted commercial investments. To move from a few successful projects to large scale investments globally is a momentous challenge. How can we replicate successes of current NbS and create a pipeline of credible projects with the help of interested private investors? Notable success factors for building bankable NbS included strong expertise and track record among project owners, the availability of dedicated grants for project feasibility assessments and technical assistance, the effective use of blended finance, and securing a market through offtake agreements.