European Commission issues NBS factsheet

The European Commission has published a new factsheet arguing that nature-based solutions should be treated less as a niche environment line item and more as infrastructure that can be financed across multiple policy budgets. The document, published on September 4 and hosted via NetworkNature, is titled *Unlocking Nature’s Potential Across Systems, Sectors and Budgets*. It says nature-based solutions can deliver biodiversity, social and economic benefits at the same time, and that this “multifunctionality” creates room to fund them through existing spending lines in transport, water, landscape design and insurance. (networknature.eu) The Commission’s core argument is simple: if a project helps with more than one public objective, it should not have to rely on a single “nature” budget. The factsheet says nature-based solutions can support public health, climate mitigation and adaptation, disaster risk reduction and water management, alongside biodiversity goals. Because of that, it says funding already allocated to those areas can, if aligned strategically, become direct investment in nature-based solutions. (networknature.eu) That matters because the paper frames the financing problem as a structural one, not just a shortage of goodwill. Citing IPBES assessments and UNEP’s State of Finance for Nature work, the factsheet says the gap between money flowing to nature-degrading activities and money flowing to nature-protecting activities is “more than 30:1.” Its proposed response is twofold: reduce nature-negative flows and scale up nature-positive investment. (networknature.eu) The examples are meant to show what that looks like in practice. The factsheet highlights Helsinki’s tram line 13 as a case where a municipal transport budget was used to build a “green tram line” rather than conventional grey infrastructure. Along the 4.5-kilometre route, the Commission says biodiversity features and nature-based solutions were integrated to support stormwater management, habitat creation and climate resilience. (networknature.eu) A second example comes from Aquafin, the wastewater utility in Flanders, Belgium. The factsheet says the company is exploring nature-based solutions to treat effluent and overflow water, while also using ecological hedges, water-collecting basins and other measures that align infrastructure with natural processes. In other words, the Commission is pointing planners toward projects where nature is embedded inside the operating model of a utility or transport system, rather than added afterward as mitigation. (networknature.eu) This is consistent with the Commission’s longer-running definition of nature-based solutions. On its research and innovation pages, the Commission defines them as solutions “inspired and supported by nature” that are cost-effective, provide environmental, social and economic benefits, and help build resilience. It also says they must benefit biodiversity and support ecosystem services. (research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu) The new factsheet also sits inside a broader EU policy architecture. The Commission says nature-based solutions are key to major priorities including the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the EU Adaptation Strategy, and that scaling public and private investment in them is part of the “transformational change” needed for more sustainable and just economies. The Biodiversity Strategy itself says the EU wants better financing and investment, and better integration of nature into decision-making, as part of putting biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030. (research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu) The immediate takeaway is procedural rather than rhetorical. The Commission is trying to give planners, finance teams and sector operators a budgeting logic for nature-based solutions: look across departments, match one intervention to several policy outcomes, and treat nature as a delivery mechanism for transport, water, resilience and economic objectives, not only as an environmental add-on. That is the through-line of the September 4 factsheet and of the June 2, 2026 EU Green Week partner event it was based on. (networknature.eu)