Boosting climate change adaptation in Europe, with the EIB and WWF joining forces to develop solutions
Against a backdrop of increasingly severe floods and droughts across Europe, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and WWF are joining forces to accelerate Europe’s adaptation to climate change through the development of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that will help protect societies and economies from the growing impacts of the dual climate and biodiversity crisis.
In a memorandum of understanding, the EIB (1) and WWF (2) have committed to promoting nature-based solutions across Europe to address the dual crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss. This four-year partnership agreement, signed during the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Colombia, will focus on ecosystem restoration projects related to sectors such as agriculture, energy and urban resilience, which will harness the power of nature to scale up climate change adaptation in Europe — the fastest-warming continent on Earth.
These projects will not only improve ecosystem health, but will also help reverse the loss of nature across the continent. The latest edition of the WWF Living Planet Report found that species populations have declined by an average of 35% in Europe and Central Asia since 1970.
Under the agreement, WWF will establish an “incubation mechanism” to develop a portfolio of nature-based solutions from inception through to investment-readiness, while the EIB will provide guidance on how to mobilise public and private finance for such solutions.
“Europe is significantly behind on its climate change adaptation needs,” said EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle. “We want to support more nature-based solution projects to restore and protect biodiversity and strengthen the climate resilience of our society. Partnering with organisations such as WWF, which has a strong on-the-ground presence, enables us to achieve tangible results at scale.”
Nature-based solutions face significant obstacles, including a lack of investor awareness and the need to reach consensus among a wide range of local stakeholders.
“No place is immune to the climate crisis. In recent years, Europe has experienced a series of historic floods and droughts with devastating consequences for people’s lives and livelihoods, and this will only get worse unless we urgently and drastically increase investment in nature-based solutions,” said Kirsten Schuijt, Director General of WWF. “This partnership will enable us to do exactly that, by creating a portfolio of projects that harness nature without harming it. These projects will amplify the power of nature to protect European citizens from the growing impacts of climate change, in particular the droughts and river and coastal flooding that are afflicting the continent.”
The announcement of this partnership comes at an opportune moment, as the new European Commission has signalled that it will work on a European climate change adaptation plan that will support preparedness and planning with regular science-based risk assessments and a European water resilience strategy.
Over the years, the EIB has collaborated with WWF on a variety of issues including nature-based solutions, biodiversity, climate change resilience and ecosystem restoration. Cooperation has focused on the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles, of which the EIB is a founding partner alongside WWF. Also noteworthy is the EIB’s cooperation with WWF-Greece on stakeholder engagement to identify and develop nature-based solutions in order to strengthen flood resilience in Thessaly (Greece).
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- (1) The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term financing institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It operates in more than 160 countries.
- (2) WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organisations, with more than 5 million supporters and a global network present in more than 100 countries.