Atlas of Natural Climate Solutions

The Atlas depicts a collection of case studies of Nature-based Climate Solutions (NCS) for climate change adaptation and mitigation in 28 countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Republic of Congo, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Natural climate solutions (NCS) are a subset of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) that focus on adapting to and mitigating climate change. Moreover, Nature-based Solutions are defined by the EU Research and Innovation policy agenda on Nature-based Solutions and Re-naturing Cities as solutions that are “inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience” (European Commission). While a term of its own, NBS is oftentimes understood as an umbrella concept for other ecosystem-based strategies such as urban gardens, sustainable forest management, or green and blue infrastructure (Escobedo et al., 2019).

Given their uniqueness in simultaneously targeting economic, social and climate goals, interest in NBS has steadily grown in past years, both from a policy as well as research perspective. In this sense, a number of initiatives have dedicated their efforts into creating a library of case studies of NBS across different countries and regions (e.g., Urban Nature Atlas, Oppla Case Studies, Network Nature Case Studies, NBS Initiative). The present atlas complements this work by employing a case study methodology to explore policy aspects of NCS, in particular their governing and funding.

This work fed into and complemented a working paper that provided a comprehensive review of NBS policy in the European Union. In addition, it built upon precursor work, carried out by the Chair’s team, which analysed the institutional considerations for social inclusion and effectiveness of natural climate solutions. The analytical findings are summarized in the paper “Institutional Considerations in the Practice of Natural Climate Solutions“. These relate to the following questions:

• Who is considered as having an explicit stake in the effort (groups of households, communities, NGOs, CSOs, companies, government agencies/department, institutions/groups, networks), and by extension, not considered to be stakeholders?
• What are the specific interests of the stakeholders (whether quantitatively or qualitatively expressed – financial, moral, livelihood, influence, aesthetic or their combination), and the use of ambiguous issues (such as ‘tradition’, ‘progress’)?
• What local, administrative and distant interests are considered?
• What are the unspoken assumptions made in the project in legitimating interests of some stakeholders (such as ‘national development’, ‘global importance’)?
• What arrangements are made in the institutional architecture to ensure that the effort delivers solutions over decades, in the face of likely changes in the social, political, economic and environmental dimensions?

The Atlas is interactive and case studies appear by region: Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The maps provide key information on the cases as well as additional sources to allow for continued exploration. Please note that the classification of NCS type is indicative, as some projects involve several types of nature-based solutions. We invite you to alert us to potential mistakes in the Atlas, as well as to share other NCS efforts for inclusion at sdctchair.info@sciencespo.fr.

This project was carried out by the European Chair for Sustainable Development and Climate Transition at Sciences Po with the collaboration of Joanna O’Flynn, Manon Chenailler, Mara Förster, Nike Hüttermann and Hugo Specht.