Posted on March, 02 2022

(2 March 2022) At the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) today, governments formally agreed a definition of nature-based solutions, and recognised the important role they can play in the global response to climate change.

This is the first time that the concept has been discussed and agreed by states in a multilateral forum. At the recent COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, the role of nature in achieving the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal was recognised, but the concept of ‘nature-based solutions’ was removed from the final text.

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, WWF Global Lead for Climate & Energy, said: "The decision by member governments of UNEA to adopt a multilaterally agreed definition of nature-based solutions is a giant step forward for climate and nature. It underscores the importance governments put on how effective a tool nature-based solutions can be in addressing two of humanity's greatest challenges - climate change and nature loss. It also bodes well for nature-based solutions to be reflected in the final Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, to be decided at the upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity COP15."

The UNEA resolution formally adopted the definition of nature-based solution as ‘actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits.’