NbS and Climate Change: Harnessing the power of ecosystems for adaptation and mitigation

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are an integrative concept for ecosystem-based approaches and address major societal challenges, such as water security, climate change, biodiversity loss and human health jointly and coherently, contributing to achieving various SDGs. They offer complementary opportunities for effective, robust, cost-efficient, and flexible adaptation and mitigation measures. NbS are structured in five categories (protection, management, restoration, infrastructure, issue-specific), to all of which the partaking institutions implement activities in multiple regional, societal and environmental settings.

Setting the scene with the policy context, this session at the COP26 Water Pavilion portrays applications in the field with practical examples from Bolivia and the Dominican Republic, and UK. The session has particular focus on effective manageable ecosystem services provided by the sub-surface.