Thematic findings
Nature-based solutions: What is needed to successfully embed nature-based solutions into local practice?
Increased understanding and long-term thinking
Nature-based solutions are one of the most powerful and economically viable tools for robust adaptation and mitigation to climate change, while at the same time, they contribute to enhancing biodiversity and human well-being. The main barrier to implementation is a lack of awareness of their full potential and understanding of their multiple benefits.
To successfully implement NBSs a new cooperative approach and mindsets are needed, which often counter traditional methods of planning, designing, and building towns and cities. Stakeholders and decision-makers must fully understand the natural processes, biodiversity, and ecosystem services and incorporate their benefits and utility into their planning and development of the respective area. Hence, re-skilling and education, which stresses the potential and robustness of NBS, are needed for national and local decision-makers. Simultaneously, public awareness must be raised, emphasizing NBS benefits.
High-risk scenarios may call for a speedy response. This can result in a preference for grey solutions, which may be enacted speedily and are available off the shelf. NBS vary in scope and size, in cities and towns they can be easily implemented and will start working immediately. Strategic plans, multidisciplinary understanding, and long-term thinking are needed to unleash the full potential of NBS.
Nature-based solutions must become a part of the national and local toolbox
To establish NBS as a mainstream tool to address adaptation to climate change, municipalities, and national governments must work together on strengthening their position within the legal framework and produce national guidelines. They need to clarify the roles and responsibilities of key initiators and players. They must also ensure adequate long-term funding for NBS to secure their successful implementation and maintenance and place them on par with grey solutions within the budgets, which traditionally has not been done.
Additionally, authorities can provide financial incentives and support for implementing NBS. For example, municipalities can collect charges on a sliding scale for residents that have impermeable areas, as well as to offer grants to improve the permeability of a built-up territory, such as turning parking lots into permeable areas.
Active stakeholder engagement and education
Stakeholder engagement is paramount to the success of adaptation responses, particularly when it comes to nature-based solutions. Experience shows that there can be considerable resistance from different stakeholders such as citizens and private landowners. Often this is due to a lack of understanding of what nature-based solutions entail. To overcome this, early engagement is required where the emphasis is on improving understanding and knowledge. This can support ownership and pride and make the implementation and maintenance of nature-based solutions easier. Therefore, material for educating key stakeholders at all stages is needed.
Benefits and potential side effects must be emphasized
Local authorities and national governments need to bring to the fore the multifunctionality of nature-based solutions, especially their ecological and social worth. First, they are a long-term solution to environmental hazards. They add recreational value and improve landscaping within towns, at the same time providing local amenities and enhancement of quality of life in neighborhoods. Considering this, the socio-economic implications of nature-based solutions merit exploration. This can include potential unintended consequences, such as where nature-based solutions have been successfully implemented they tend to increase the value of properties which in return could result in sections of the local community being priced out of the area.
Active monitoring and evaluation of nature-based solutions
To gauge whether the expectations of projects meet intended goals, municipalities should evaluate and monitor multiple factors after the implementation of nature-based solutions. This should capture their intended multifunctionality, including satisfaction of inhabitants, biodiversity assessments, and economic impact, as well as measuring the impact the nature-based solutions have on the environmental hazards they are designed to address. Effective monitoring will also display any unintended consequences of their implementation and allow valuable lessons to be learned.
Sea level rise: Why use adaptive planning methods to help local authorities find the right responses?
Communities are key to building a consensus around adaptation responses
Adaptation responses, such as building protective barriers, elevating transport infrastructure, or relocating residents and industries, are disruptive and expensive. They can cause considerable lasting damage to the local environment and affect distinct groups of society in unpredictable ways. However, the cause behind these measures is disruptive as well, especially if no adaptation measures are put in place. By engaging local authorities early in the decision-making process, municipalities can build consensus about the tough social and financial decisions that need to be made regarding adaptation
Communities are well-placed to identify vulnerabilities and thresholds of climate hazards
Communities are well placed to identify vulnerabilities in local areas. Local knowledge can complement and strengthen scientific research and support the development of adaptation decisions. These bottom-up approaches will support decision-makers in developing desirable futures on a local level, what to avoid (adaptation thresholds), and how to get there (adaptation responses).
Adaptive long-term thinking is the foundation for building a long-lasting plan
Changes in climate stressors driven by climate change will result in increased risk for coastal communities. This will become apparent in the form of more severe and frequent occurrences of coastal hazards. The uncertainty in future frequency and intensity of these hazards means that adaptivity should be embedded in the adaptation process to adapt timely. When a current adaptation policy does not manage to meet the objectives, an alternative adaptation response will be needed. The alternative strategy has to be implemented prior to reaching this threshold, emphasizing the importance of monitoring for decision-makers. This means that adaptation procedures should allow for adaptivity over time, depending on how the risk changes.
Transboundary climate risks: What can local authorities do?
Ensure transboundary climate risk assessment at the local level
In a hyperconnected world, climate risks permeate boundaries so that climate-related natural hazard events in one country or area can create societal risks in other countries or areas mediated through trade or in other ways. To ensure a deeper understanding and to be better prepared, municipalities should work with other stakeholders to map climate-related vulnerabilities that affect key industries in their area and their potential impact on local livelihood.
Enforce active dialogue between local and national authorities
Policies covering TCRs are mostly dealt with at the national and supranational levels of governance. However, sub-national authorities can contribute positively to society becoming more proactive in addressing such risks, for example by inviting local stakeholders to analyze whether and possibly how the local community may be affected by these new forms of climate risk. This in turn can pave the way for clarifying the extent to which local measures can reduce TCRs, and where this is only possible to a limited extent as well as send policy signals up the governance hierarchy with orders for changes in national policy within relevant policy areas. One example is TCRs within livestock production in the Nordic countries linked to the extensive import of soya to produce concentrate, and identification of local wishes to eventually change the national agricultural policy to reduce this dependence.
Urge that the topic of transboundary climate risks is moved up the agenda at the national level
As the understanding of TCRs deepens, national governments need a more systematic approach to address these risks. This includes incorporating TCRs into national security plans, development aid efforts, and research, and in the national climate adaptation plans, clarifying the role that local authorities are expected to play in this part of the climate adaptation work. Today, such clarification is lacking in all Nordic countries.
