Nature-based Solutions ahead of COP15: where are we now?

A pre-COP15 summary blog
By: The NbS Youth Coalition (authors: Marina Melanidis, Cathy Yitong Li, & Julia Bethe from Y4N, YOUNGO, GYBN)

It’s been over a year since we released the Global Youth Statement on Nature-based Solutions (NbS). With COP15 just around the corner, we have put together a review of what has happened in the NbS discussion since the statement was released, and to share some insights into what we can expect from the discussion moving forward.

But first, here is a refresher on how we put the Statement together (you can explore the entire process on our website!):

A recap of our work so far

“Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) became a popular, mainstream term that is featured in policy and funding commitments around the world throughout the last several years. And while some push NbS forward as an exciting and necessary approach to address both the climate and biodiversity crises, others push against the concept with serious concerns about greenwashing and human rights violations.

Members of the NbS Youth Coalition (Y4N, GYBN, and YOUNGO) presenting and launching the Global Youth Statement on NbS at COP26 in Glasgow | November, 2021

Y4N, GYBN, and YOUNGO joined forces in early 2021 to fill a gap in the popular NbS discourse: the lack of a unified youth voice. After first publishing an Information Brief (What are Nature-based Solutions? Risks, concerns, and opportunities), we launched a multilingual consultative survey which gathered the input of over 1000 youth from 112 countries about NbS. Using the inputs we gathered from the survey, we developed and launched a nuanced, critical, and inclusive Global Youth Position Statement on Nature-based Solutions that currently serves as the only global statement from young people about the uses and pitfalls of the “Nature-based Solutions” concept in research, policy, and practice. We officially launched the Statement one year ago, in November 2021, at COP26 in Glasgow, including sharing our demands in various events at COP26.

Since then, we have seen our work cited by the UNEP (‘Nature-based Solutions: Opportunities and Challenges for Scaling Up’), highlighted by initiatives like Network Nature and Oppla, presented at Wageningen University & research (“Nature Based Solutions: the good, the bad, and the youth perspective), and shared at the NbS Conference in Oxford (You can watch that recording and read a summary of the full session here - we start at 51:50; “Competing Narratives of Nature-based Solutions”). We have also shared our work during the UNCBD meetings in Geneva in January 2022.

Two Major NbS Updates in 2022

A new, multilateral definition

The most significant piece of news about NbS is the announcement that nations came together to adopt a new, multilateral definition for NbS during the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in March 2022 (often called “UNEP’s definition”). That definition is:

“nature-based solutions are actions to protect, conserve, restore,sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits” (UNEP/EA.5/Res.5)

The definition goes on to state that NbS must “respect social and environmental safeguards … including such safeguards for local communities and indigenous peoples”, and that NbS “do not replace the need for rapid, deep and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”.

UNEP’s definition puts nature at the centre of the concept, which is good to see, but it still fails to explicitly mention the need for NbS to be grounded in justice, equity, and inclusion, and rights-based approaches. This aspect needs to be strengthened.

In short, this announcement demonstrates that countries can come together and agree on a multilaterally agreed definition of NbS that is stronger than what currently exists (i.e., contains explicit references to safeguards, and the need for deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions). This announcement also signals a much deeper mainstreaming of the NbS concept, and we can expect to see the term used more and more in research, policy, and practice now that it is multilaterally defined. Yet, there is still a lack of formal recognition of the need for rights-based approaches within NbS work.

It is crucial that we continue to pay attention to and call out greenwashing as the usage of NbS becomes more mainstream, and that we push for NbS implementation that does, in fact, follow our call for “strict binding social and environmental safeguards, with a focus on ecosystem integrity and functions, meaningful participation and free, prior, and informed consent from Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, human and Indigenous rights, and rights of nature”.

NbS in the COP27 decision text

The second most significant piece of news occurred during the recent COP27, which witnessed “nature-based solutions” being included in a UNFCCC COP decision (Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Plan) for the first time, adopted by all Parties. The adopted text incorporates NbS into its section on forests, and encourages member states to consider NbS as it is defined and described under the UNEP definition. This suggests that the NbS discussion is moving in the direction of a commonly agreed framework, bridging climate and biodiversity spaces. Further supporting this was the various voices and events focused on NbS that took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, like the newly established IUCN Climate Crisis Commission.

If NbS is to be discussed and featured in policy negotiations and legal frameworks within both the UNFCCC and UNCBD conventions, it will be important for these conventions to agree on common terminology that explicitly recognises how the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis are, in fact, the same crisis and must be addressed together.

What is happening with NbS now?

NbS at COP15

COP15 is due to start next week in Montréal, Canada. It will be the biggest global event for biodiversity in over a decade, where nations will come together to (hopefully) agree on a new Global Biodiversity Framework that will guide global biodiversity policy for the next decade. NbS was always going to be a big topic of discussion at COP15, but we anticipate NbS to be an especially hot topic now that there is an adopted multilateral definition by UNEP which has been referred to by UNFCCC COP27.

Organisations, institutions, and governments that support NbS will likely apply a lot of pressure during COP15 to integrate the concept into the Global Biodiversity Framework. WWF’s November 2021 report, Nature-based Solutions in the Convention on Biological Diversity, describes the value of incorporating “NbS” into the CBD decision text as:

“As the leading governance body for biodiversity, there are multiple benefits to the CBD responding to the global momentum towards NbS. By seizing the “moment” presented by the Post-2020 GBF to incorporate a set of principles to guide the operation of NbS with respect to biodiversity, this not only keeps the CBD relevant and forward-looking as a governance body but also, crucially, keeps the CBD at the table in terms of how the perception and real-world utilisation of NbS evolves.”

However, there is still a lot of uncertainty, serious concerns, and pushback within the biodiversity community towards NbS, especially as it relates to the way the concept could pose risks to Indigenous and human rights and to ecosystem integrity. A collective declaration titled “NO to Nature Based ‘Solutions’”, stewarded by the World Rainforest Movement, was signed by over 300 organisations, opposing NbS in environmental polocy, including at COP15:

“‘Nature-based solutions’ are thus not a solution, they are a scam. The purported solutions will result in “nature-based dispossessions” because they will enclose the remaining living spaces of Indigenous Peoples, peasants and other forest-dependent communities and reduce “nature” to a service provider for offsetting corporations’ pollution and to protect the profits of those corporations most responsible for climate chaos. Indigenous Peoples, peasants and other forest-dependent communities whose territories are being enclosed will face more violence, more restrictions on their use of their lands and more outside control over their territories.”

A new term on the block: “Nature+”

Another popular new term in the nature space is no doubt ‘Nature Positive’ (also written as “Nature+”). Nature+ and NbS share similar risks and concerns by civil society stakeholders, specifically due to risks of greenwashing and a lack of safeguards to ensure a rights-based equitable approach in the implementation of these concepts. In fact, Nature+ might be even riskier due to its looser definition, compared to NbS which now has a multilaterally adopted definition. We worry that the term Nature+ is rooted in marketing and offsetting, having largely emerged from financial institutions and the private sector, instead of the needs and rights of communities, and of nature. You can see GYBN’s article that outlines these concerns about the uptake of “Nature+” here.

Reflecting on the Global Youth Statement on NbS, and where we go from here

How do these new updates align (or not align) with the key messages and demands from the Global Youth Statement for NbS?

The Statement stated that “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) is a new term for an old idea that has been understood and practised for millennia, and is vulnerable to greenwashing - this is still true.

The Statement also called for the following:

NbS policy, research, and practice must be grounded in inclusion, equity, and justice. This request shifting narratives, platforms, and resources to those who have been leading on NbS for millennia, and prioritising rights-based approaches.
- Progress update: While the UNEP definition does call for free, prior, and informed consent, and to be implemented “in partnership with local communities, women and youth as well as with Indigenous peoples,” there is no mention of rights-based approaches. Additionally, we still have yet to see a meaningful shift in NbS narratives, platforms, and resources towards communities and frontline leaders.
Recognition that NbS are place-based actions that require specific, local standards and indicators that are backed by science and local and Indigenous knowledge
- Progress update: Little progress has been seen since we launched the statement, and we urge countries to meaningfully address this, including for this to be discussed in UNFCCC’s Global Goal on Adaptation and Global Stocktake processes.
NbS interventions must be implemented using legal safeguards to address the concerns and risks
- Progress update: The UNEP definition is binding by international law, but this is notoriously challenging to enforce - especially without a unified understanding of what “social and environmental safeguards” actually mean. We need national regulations and ‘hard laws’ to ensure equitable implementation
NbS cannot be a vehicle for polluters to avoid limiting their emissions through carbon offsets. An overemphasis offsets and carbon markets, which risks the commodification of nature and distracts from the necessary decarbonization that both science and justice demand.
- Progress update: While it is encouraging to see an explicit recognition of the need for deep emission reductions alongside NbS implementation within the UNEP definition, we are still seriously concerned about nature and biodiversity offsetting through projects branded as NbS. We are also seriously concerned about projects that claim to be “Nature+” aligned, and the risk that these projects might pose to the rights of people and nature. Furthermore, we are concerned that because NbS was incorporated in the forest section of the Sharm el Sheikh Implementation Plan (XVI. 81.), the term will be primarily used as a carbon offsetting tool (similar to REDD+), distracting from the urgent need to decarbonise and from the need to centre ecosystem integrity, justice, and rights-based approaches within NbS.
Governments, private sector stakeholders and large international organisations must redirect funding to the conservation, restoration, and management of nature
- Progress update: We have seen unprecedented momentum behind this, but much more progress is needed. Most importantly, work is needed to ensure that increased financial flows to nature align with rights-based and equitable implementation.

Ultimately, all of the key messages and recommendations within the Global Youth Position Statement on NbS are still true. In particular, we need to ensure that the implementation of NbS avoids greenwashing by major polluters, and avoids companies setting NbS targets that do not align with the UNEP definition, and that do not put concrete mechanisms in place to monitor the implementation, for communities and for nature. While the adoption of a multilateral, UNEP definition for NbS that calls for safeguards and for deep reductions of greenhouse gases is definitely a win, NbS is still being used to greenwash harmful and violent business as usual (like Shell’s continued use of “NbS” as a carbon offsetting tool). It is up to us, as youth, civil society, and communities, to continue to call for actions that are rooted in the rights of people and the rights of nature.

Without strict safeguards for people and nature, and without prioritising ecosystem integrity and rights-based approaches, there can be no NbS. We will continue to call out co-option and false solutions.

We will be discussing all of this, including revisiting the Global Youth Statement on NbS, at COP15, during a side-event that we are hosting titled“Youth and NbS: What is at stake?”. It will be a highly collaborative session with the intended outcome to better understand the views of youth who are at COP15 about NbS (both supportive and critical), and what youth are looking for in the future for NbS implementation. If you will be at COP15, please join us and contribute to the discussion, which will take place on December 13th, from 17:10 to 18:10 in the Youth Pavilion. Hope to see you there!