Nidhi Nagabhatla represented UNU-CRIS at the Finance Innovation Festival organised by the EU's Naturance Project
On 22-23 May 2024, Nidhi Nagabhatla represented UNU-CRIS at the Finance Innovation Festival, organized by the EU’s Naturance Project (naturanceproject.eu). The festival aims to leverage nature-based solutions (NbS) to help communities adapt to changes and disasters. This event facilitated discussions on financial, insurance, and investment opportunities that promote nature-based solutions and explored the feasibility and performance of such solutions in disaster risk financing and NbS investment.
Nagabhatla chaired a pivotal roundtable discussion, introducing three key outputs from UNU CRIS’s Nature Climate and Health Cluster:
- Enhancing Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIAs) for Global Investment: This session highlighted the EU's leadership in Environmental Impact Assessments within trade agreements. It emphasized the need to bolster SIAs to drive nature-positive investments and Official Development Assistance (ODA) on a regional and global scale. For more details, visit ECPR Event Paper.
- Strengthening NBS Budgeting for Climate Resilience: Drawing insights from the European Floods of 2021, this discussion underscored the imperative to increase budget allocations for Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in climate resilience strategies, particularly focusing on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Learn more about this initiative from the UNU Report.
- Inclusive Approach to Nature Restoration Law: This session explored the significance of inclusive approaches to Nature Restoration Law in Europe, highlighting its potential to foster sustainable development. Experiences from the WATERAGRI Project were shared to illustrate this point. Nagabhatla presented policy briefs on the integration of NbS solutions in the Water-Food Nexus, emphasizing water retention, nutrient recycling, and their impact on agricultural production in the European region. The importance of incorporating NbS solutions into regional dialogues on the Water-Food Nexus and Food-Gender Nexus was also discussed. Relevant policy briefs from UNU CRIS series include:
Overall, the Finance Innovation Festival marked a significant step towards integrating nature-based solutions into broader environmental, climate, and societal agendas, demonstrating the critical role of financial and investment strategies in enhancing climate resilience and sustainable development.
