Speech - Nature based solutions are often also the cheapest solutions - Main contents

European Commission

[Check Against Delivery]

Janez Potočnik

European Commissioner for Environment

Nature based solutions are often also the cheapest solutions

High Level Segment Panel discussion: Nature-based Solutions to Global Challenges, 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Pyeongchang (Republic of Korea), 16 October 2014

Chair, Distinguished panel, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Four important questions have been asked for this debate. I will try to answer them quickly and do a short summary at the end.

Are we doing enough to promote nature-based solutions for many of our global problems? What should we do differently? Can we further improve the international frameworks to highlight nature as a solution?

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  We can and should do a lot more to promote Nature Based Solutions.

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  First of all, we need to work harder to raise awareness about the benefits of working with nature. Unfortunately, there is a suspicion that nature based solutions or green infrastructure are really just another way of promoting an exclusively green agenda.

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  We need to convince people that we are in fact offering solutions to some of the big problems facing society, and that these solutions deliver multiple benefits.

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  In many cases nature based solutions are of course good for the economy and they are also good for society, for example they improve physical and mental health and wellbeing, they are also often community based, which is good for social cohesion.

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  Yes, they are also good for biodiversity, but in many cases this may not be the primary objective. We also need to underline that working with nature will re-establish the link between human society and our natural environment; re-establish the understanding that previous generations had but that we have lost; namely that our future is entirely dependent upon the condition of the natural systems around us.

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  It is important that decision makers provide clear policy signals regarding the recourse to Nature Based Solutions. In the European Union, we are implementing a strategy for the deployment of Green Infrastructure; ecosystem based approaches are integrated into policies for climate change adaptation and the marine environment; Natural Water Retention Measures are an integral part of our management of water resources. Natural solutions are also being encouraged through the major funding mechanisms associated with agricultural policy and regional development.

What is the potential for return on investment in nature based solutions to global problems? How is the progress of the strategies that donors currently use to invest in nature-based solutions?

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  Societal benefits related to investments in nature based solutions are potentially massive. Classic examples include mangrove swamps providing multiple societal benefits as compared to the shrimp farms that have been replacing them in Asia, or the consequence for New Orleans of having allowed the natural coastal defence mechanisms to be degraded and destroyed.

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  Nature based solutions such as (re) planting of mangroves and forests do not involve expensive technology, and they usually include the local community in their creation and management.

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  In many cases, nature based solutions have passed the “proof of concept” stage and should represent secure investments for the donor community. The governance issues related to such projects may be more complicated, but there is ample evidence that they work.

Has Business fully embraced Nature Based Solutions to global problems? If not, how can we help to move business in this direction?

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  There are several examples where business has invested in nature based solutions. However, such approaches are not yet “mainstreamed”. There is still the perception that they are “too risky”, even though experience would suggest otherwise. Nature Based Solutions offer the financial sector, and in particular the insurance sector, an opportunity for reducing their exposure to the potentially massive losses associated with natural disasters.

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  In the EU we have recognized the importance of getting greater engagement of the business community. The European Commission is working together with the European Investment Bank to establish a Natural Capital Financing Facility in order to leverage private and public investment in natural capital-related projects. The objective of the facility is to support projects that generate revenues whilst protecting natural capital and contributing to biodiversity and climate adaptation objectives, through loans and contributions to investment funds. These projects will also have wider environmental, social and economic benefits.

How can the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as its Parties and partners, support the needs of countries to close gaps in capacity and training on issues related to nature-based solutions (ecosystem resilience, restoration, disaster risk reduction, etc.)?

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  There is significant experience and expertise in relation to Nature Based Solutions. The challenge is to increase awareness and to transfer and spread the know-how. The traditional mechanisms of communication, awareness raising events, web-based knowledge hubs and tools as well as demonstration projections should help to promote and encourage the mainstreaming of Nature Based Solutions.

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our message about nature based solution should be simple, loud, clear and understandable.

First, Ecosystem services are providing food, fresh water and clean air. They are regulating climate and providing shelter to many. Ecosystems physically stabilise the movement of water, earth, rocks and snow, they help absorb the damaging consequences of natural disasters. All these are fundamentals our life depends on.

Second, human activities are destroying and degrading the natural world and depleting our natural capital. Degraded ecosystems cannot deliver the same level of ecosystem services which is, and it is even more becoming, the major problem for all living beings.

Third, nature based solutions are in many cases also the cheapest solutions. They may not contribute to GDP as much as technical solutions, but this should not be the reason that we would not use them. It should be just one reason more to fix the broken compass of GDP, if I can borrow the expression used by Pavan Sukhdev.