With Europe facing increasingly intense floods and droughts, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and WWF are teaming up to accelerate climate adaptation in Europe by developing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that will help to buffer societies and economies against the worsening impacts of the climate and biodiversity crises.

“Europe’s adaptation to climate change lags far behind what is needed,” said EIB Vice-President, Ambroise Fayolle, ”We want to support more nature-based-solution projects to restore and protect biodiversity and strengthen the climate resilience of our society. Partnerships with organisations like WWF with a strong presence on the ground are a relevant way for us to help deliver tangible results on a large scale.”

In a Memorandum of Understanding, the EIB and WWF pledged to promote Nature-based Solutions across Europe to tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Signed during the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity COP16 in Colombia, the four-year partnership will focus on ecosystem restoration projects linked to sectors such as agriculture, energy, and urban resilience, which will harness the power of nature to strengthen climate adaptation in Europe - the fastest-warming continent on Earth.

By investing in enhancing the health of ecosystems, the projects will also help to reverse nature loss in the continent. The recent WWF Living Planet Report found that species populations have declined by 35 per cent on average in Europe and Central Asia since 1970.

Under the agreement, WWF will establish an ‘Incubation facility’ to develop a pipeline of Nature-based Solutions from origination until they are investment-ready, while the EIB will provide guidance on mobilising public and private funding for them.

Nature-based solutions face significant obstacles including a lack of awareness among investors and a need for consensus building among a wide range of local players.

The announcement of this partnership is timely as the new European Commission has announced that it will work on a European Climate Adaptation Plan, which will support building preparedness and planning with regular science-based risk assessments, and on a European Water Resilience Strategy.

It also comes after the EU Nature Restoration Law was adopted in August 2024. This regulation combines an overarching restoration objective for the long-term recovery of nature in the EU with binding restoration targets for specific habitats and species.

Ester Asin, Director of the WWF European Policy Office, said: "Europe is already the world’s fastest-warming continent, and nature is our best ally to help us adapt to ever higher temperatures. The upcoming European Climate Adaptation Plan must harness the power of wetlands, floodplains, oceans, and forests to store water, sequester carbon, protect ecosystems, and ultimately cool us down. Only by working with nature can we limit the drastic impacts of climate change!”

Over the years, the EIB has worked with WWF on a range of matters including Nature-based Solutions, biodiversity, climate resilience and ecosystem restoration. Cooperation has focused on the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles, of which the EIB is one of the founding partners alongside WWF. Another example is EIB cooperation with WWF-Greece on stakeholder engagement to identify and develop nature-based solutions for flood resilience in Thessaly, Greece.

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Notes to editor

The Incubation Facility for NbS in Europe is being developed under WWF’s Living European Rivers initiative - an ambitious  programme to mainstream Nature-based Solutions for Climate Adaptation on the continent. This approach will help countries fulfil their commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Target 2 on restoration, the Freshwater Challenge and the European Union’s Nature Restoration Law.

More information about WWF’s vision for climate adaptation and resilience in Europe can be found in this WWF position paper.