By Pamela Conrad
Last month, global leaders convened in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29). Dubbed the “Finance COP,” this year’s summit focused on increasing access to climate finance. The most significant milestone was the adoption of the New Collective Quantified Goal, a historic commitment to channel $300 billion in financing to developing countries by 2035. These funds will help these countries build low-emission economies and adapt to the intensifying impacts of climate change.
Another key takeaway: the increasing global recognition of nature-based solutions as critical tools for addressing climate challenges. The U.S. government underscored this by endorsing the COP29 Declaration on Multisectoral Actions Pathways to Resilient and Healthy Cities. This declaration promotes urban climate action by integrating these solutions with disaster resilience, sustainable buildings, green jobs, and clean technologies.
These outcomes point to a growing international consensus on the importance of advancing nature-based solution policies, resources, and approaches to combat the climate crisis. But much more financing is needed to scale up these solutions worldwide. The World Bank estimates that $2.4 trillion is needed per year by 2030 to meet climate goals, approximately four times what is currently invested.
Why We Still Need to Communicate the Value of Nature-Based Solutions
As someone who has attended several COP conferences over the years, I’ve seen more buzz about nature-based solutions. But there’s a disconnect: while people talk about these solutions enthusiastically, few truly understand what they are. Many will point to mangroves as an example—and they’re not wrong—but these solutions are so much more.
Nature-based solutions work with natural ecosystems to address pressing challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequities. They can be implemented in urban and rural areas and at any scale of development.
These solutions include strategies such as restoring wetlands to manage flooding, integrating green roofs in cities to reduce heat, and creating sustainable urban forests to improve air quality. The brilliance of these solutions lies in their multifaceted benefits: they deliver environmental, economic, and social advantages simultaneously.
When people see these strategies in action, it’s often a revelation. Suddenly, the abstract concept becomes tangible, and a lightbulb moment occurs. For instance, when attendees at past COP events saw how these solutions could transform landscapes, enhance community resilience, and reduce costs, their enthusiasm shifted into action.
This was the inspiration for launching WORKS with NATURE: Low Carbon Adaptation Techniques for a Changing World at the conference. It serves as a supplement to the UN National Adaptation Plan Technical Guidelines. Developing the guide was a major focus of my ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Fellowship.
The Urgent Need for New Kinds of Infrastructure
The stakes could not be higher. By 2050, 75 percent of the infrastructure we’ll rely on has yet to be built. Meanwhile, without adaptation measures, an estimated 800 million people will be vulnerable to coastal flooding by mid-century. Traditional infrastructure, built primarily with concrete and steel, is not only costly but also carbon-intensive, contributing to the climate crisis we’re trying to solve.
Fortunately, we can shift from traditional gray infrastructure to nature-based solutions, which often cost significantly less and emits a fraction of the greenhouse gases. For every dollar spent on these solutions, the return on investment is roughly fourfold, thanks to benefits like flood mitigation, cleaner air, and increased biodiversity. According to estimates by The Nature Conservancy, these solutions could account for up to 30 percent of the carbon sequestration needed by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
These solutions make economic, environmental, and social sense. At COP29, this vision inspired a landscape architect-led workshop aimed at helping nations embrace nature-based solutions through practical guidance, shared experiences, and collaborative problem-solving.
How We Can Integrate Nature-Based Solutions into National Adaptation Plans
The COP29 workshop on nature-based solutions was crafted with a participatory design approach, emphasizing inclusion and collaboration. Leaders from Ethiopia, Thailand, Zambia, Bangladesh, Malawi, Timor-Leste, and the Netherlands joined global experts from organizations like the UN National Adaptation Planning group, UN Habitat, ASLA, International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), Architecture 2030, and the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) to share their experiences.
Representatives highlighted their countries’ efforts to integrate nature-based solutions into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). To date, 60 NAPs have been developed globally, with the rest of UN nations to launch their plans by the end of 2025. Each developing country receives $3 million to support the creation of their plans, which guide adaptation priorities tailored to local needs and challenges.
The workshop included a collaborative activity where leaders reflected on pressing challenges, potential solutions, and support needed to implement nature-based solutions effectively. They told us that their countries face a set of pressing challenges:
- Food security and agriculture vulnerabilities
- Increasing heat in urban areas
- Water and sanitation crises
- Flooding and sea-level rise
- Livelihood disruptions and cultural heritage preservation
- Urban climate resilience
Their countries also experience many barriers to implementing nature-based solutions:
- Coordination difficulties and conflicting interests among stakeholders
- Lack of landscape-based systematic solutions
- Limited technical capacity to design and implement nature-based solutions
- Absence of validation and valuation frameworks
- Conflicts with existing regulations and compliance mandates
- Insufficient political support and unclear governance
The leaders identified ways to overcome these barriers:
- Building capacity to develop adaptation plans and projects featuring nature-based solutions
- Creating interdisciplinary advisory boards with unified goals
- Developing policies that integrate these solutions into broader national strategies
- Facilitating workshops to engage stakeholders and align priorities\
- Enhancing coordination across sectors to break down silos
And they stated that more support is needed in key areas:
- Technical training and capacity building for implementing agencies
- Awareness campaigns targeting policymakers and communities
- Tools and technologies for monitoring and evaluation
- De-risking nature-based solutions investments through validation studies
- Political commitment and willingness to adopt these solutions
Adao Soares Barbosa, the Vice Chair of the UN NAP / Least Developed Countries Technical Expert Group closed the event, saying: “I hope this guide and workshop inspires nations with technical guidance for implementing nature-based solutions. Sharing lessons learned between developed and developing countries is essential.”
Moving Forward
The momentum generated at COP29 is just the beginning of what must become a sustained global effort. The public and private sectors are projected to invest $90 trillion in major infrastructure projects by 2030, presenting an unprecedented opportunity to integrate nature-based solutions into the foundation of future development. However, less than 10 percent of current adaptation funding goes to green infrastructure, despite its lower costs—around 70 percent less than traditional gray infrastructure.
To bridge this gap, we need robust policies, innovative financing mechanisms, and consistent performance evaluations to demonstrate these solutions’ effectiveness and economic benefits. ASLA’s recent research on the economic benefits of nature-based solutions is just the start of an ambitious economic research agenda that will support increased investment. Collaboration between policymakers, landscape architects, and communities will be key to scaling up these solutions and ensuring that nature plays a central role in building a sustainable future.
The path forward is clear: let’s invest in nature to secure a resilient, equitable, and thriving world for generations to come. COP29 may have concluded, but its outcomes will guide us as we tackle the challenges and embrace the opportunities ahead.
Pamela Conrad, ASLA, PLA, LEED AP is a licensed landscape architect, the founder of Climate Positive Design, faculty at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and ASLA’s inaugural Biodiversity and Climate Fellow. She was the chair and lead author of ASLA’s Climate Action Plan, 2019 LAF Fellow, 2023 Harvard Loeb Fellow and currently serves as IFLA’s Climate and Biodiversity Working Group Vice-Chair, World Economic Forum’s Nature-Positive Cities Task Force Expert, Carbon Leadership Forum ECHO Steering Committee, and is an Architecture 2030 Senior Fellow.