Enabling Future-Ready Urbanization in Fast-Growing Cities with Nature-based Solutions

Climate change and rapid urbanization challenge sustainable development and human well-being in the growing cities of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Asia, Africa, and Latin America, in particular, are at the forefront of the world’s urbanization today, with several low- and middle-income cities in these regions poised to become the most populous in the following decades. However, the rapid pace of urbanisation and the compounding impacts of climate change can severely disrupt cities’ abilities to address growing urban challenges.

Urban Nature-based Solutions (NbS) support sustainable development and climate resilience inside cities by leveraging nature to preserve and enhance ecosystem services to create natural buffers, protect urban infrastructures, and increase urban resilience against extreme weather events. Nevertheless, barriers to implementation persist and currently hinder the uptake and upscaling of urban NbS, particularly inside fast-growing cities in low- and middle-income countries.

Against this backdrop, this policy brief addresses (1) capacity, (2) policy and regulatory, and (3) financial barriers hindering municipal governments’ abilities to plan and implement NbS at scale inside cities. Based on stakeholder consultations and examples from rapidly growing cities, this publication makes the following recommendations for local government policymakers and urban stakeholders to overcome such barriers.

This publication is a result of a technical workshop on urban NbS hosted by UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre in 2024, focusing on building resilient cities and the role of NbS in urban mitigation and adaptation, as well as stakeholder consultations with practitioners on building resilient cities and the role of NbS.

The recording of the workshop is available below:

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