Unlocking Strategies for Co-Financing Urban Nature-based Solutions: A balancing act between the scaling up and justice

Abstract: The current reality is that cities are losing green spaces rather than creating more of them, leading to many urban challenges. Urban nature-based solutions (NbS), through renaturing urban landscapes, are seen as a promising solution to help cities deal with climate change and build a better future for communities worldwide. In Europe, specifically, NbS is also seen as a way of boosting green innovation and resilience in cities by delivering many benefits. However, securing long-term investments is a recurrent barrier to its mainstreaming. Co-financing NbS, which brings together multiple entities (across sectors, departments or actor groups) to finance the project encompassing one or more financing mechanisms, can overcome this challenge. However, there is growing evidence of research which shows that depending on how NbS is implemented, it may have potential implications on justice. This is exacerbated by the profit-driven nature of private actors involved in co-financing urban NbS. Elements of justice are often in contestations with scaling up of finance, and the balancing act between them can be quite tricky for cities to achieve. Through a comprehensive literature analysis and 20 interviews (10 expert and 10 case study interviews). The qualitative research develops a conceptual framework which elaborates on the relationship between the scaling up of co-finance and social justice. The framework provides an understanding of the roles of different public, private and community actors. It establishes five building blocks for scaling up and justice, each used as a basis to examine four case studies in Europe. The analysis reveals that implementing a scaled up and just co-financing of urban NbS requires looking beyond the project, entering into the structural domains of governance and urban development. Further, the research brings to light seven strategic possibilities which offer promising pathways for urban actors and should be considered when formulating policies and planning to ensure that the co-financing of urban NbS is upscaled and just. As such, this research makes significant contributions to academic knowledge and practice.