Reviewing financing barriers and strategies for urban nature-based solutions
Open accessAbstract
Obtaining public and/or private finance for upscaling urban nature-based solutions (NBS) is a key barrier for reaching urban sustainability goals, including climate mitigation and adaptation. We carry out a systematic review of the academic literature to understand the key barriers and corresponding strategies for financing urban NBS. First, we report on specific financing challenges and strategies found for NBS uptake in four urban ecological domains: buildings, facades and roofs; urban green space (parks, trees); allotment gardens (including urban agriculture); and green-blue infrastructure. Across domains, we identify two overarching barriers of NBS finance: (1) coordination between private and public financiers and (2) integration of NBS benefits into valuation and accounting methods. We discuss strategies found in the literature that address these barriers; here, two things stand out. One, there is a large variety of valuation strategies that does not yet allow for an integrated accounting and valuation framework for NBS. Two, strategies aimed at coordinating public/private finance generally look for ways to encourage specific actors (real estate developers, residents) that benefit privately from an NBS to provide co-financing. We visualize our findings into a framework for enabling (public and/or private) finance for upscaling urban NBS.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Innovative options include market-based mechanisms that account for public good benefits, such as through tax credits, property tax relief, bids, NbS-bonds, and sustainable finance initiatives related to climate change, as well as other economic, financial, and regulatory instruments that could offer greater opportunities for NbS buy-in.
“Innovative options include market-based mechanisms that account for public good benefits, such as through tax credits, property tax relief, bids, NbS-bonds, and sustainable finance initiatives related to climate change, as well as other economic, financial, and regulatory instruments that could offer greater opportunities for NbS buy-in (69, 131).”
From Global synthesis and regional insights for mainstreaming urban nature-based solutions (2025) · cites this paper as [69]
Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredNumerous institutional and financial barriers still exist in relation to access to funding, cost forecasting, taxation and incentives, and transaction costs.
“However, numerous institutional and financial barriers still exist in relation to access to funding, cost forecasting, taxation and incentives, and transaction costs (69, 130).”
From Global synthesis and regional insights for mainstreaming urban nature-based solutions (2025) · cites this paper as [69]
The Introduction describes challenges in accessing private finance, and §5.1 identifies limited public funding, conflicting tax and grant schemes, and institutional obstacles to investment. The paper also reports costs exceeding expectations in one infrastructure case, but the passages do not establish cost forecasting or transaction costs as distinct barriers; searches for those terms found no direct discussion. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThere is inconsistency in science-policy integration and knowledge transfer at strategic and urban planning levels, as well as limited evaluation of how NbS generate or contribute to financial benefits.
“There is related inconsistency in science–policy integration and knowledge transfer at strategic and urban planning levels (26, 48, 56, 59, 63, 66–68) as well as limited evaluation of how NbS generate or contribute to financial benefits (69).”
From Global synthesis and regional insights for mainstreaming urban nature-based solutions (2025) · cites this paper as [69]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 88 · Cited by 196
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- CEE, 2019. Environmental evidence. Environmental Evidence [Internet]. https://enviro nmentalevidencejournal.biomedcentral.com/submission-guidelines/preparing-your -manuscript/systematic-review. (Accessed 18 January 2019).
- Clark, G.L., 1998. Why convention dominates pension fund trustee investment decisionmaking. Environment and Planning A, 30 (6), 997-1015.
- Mahieu, P.-A., Andersson, H., Beaumais, O., Crastes, R., Wolff, F.-C., 2014. Is choice experiment becoming more popular than contingent valuation? A systematic review in agriculture, environment and health [internet]. [place unknown]: FAERE -French association of environmental and resource economists. https://ideas.repec.org/p/ fae/wpaper/2014.12.html. (Accessed 22 January 2019).
- Sara, Perales-Momparler, Andrés-Doménech, I., Hernández-Crespo, C., Vallés-Morán, F., Martín, M., Escuder-Bueno, I., Andreu, J., 2016. The role of monitoring sustainable drainage systems for promoting transition towards regenerative urban built environments: a case study in the Valencian region, Spain, 2017 Apr 11. Journal of Cleaner Production [Internet]. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0959652616306321.
- Toxopeus, H., Maas, K., 2017. Crowdfunding as a form of collective action. In: Designing a Sustainable Financial System: Development Goals and Socio-Ecological Responsibility. [place unknown]: Palgrave Publishing.
- Authors
- Toxopeus, H., & Polzin, F.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Toxopeus, Helen
- Venue
- Journal of Environmental Management
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-07
- Volume
- 289
- Pages
- 112371
- ISSN
- 0301-4797 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3152705401
- Cited by
- 196
- References
- 88
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 63 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 6
- FWCI
- 4.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Environmental Management (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- European Commission
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Finance › Sustainable Finance and Green Bonds
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Urban Stormwater Management Solutions
- Keywords
- urban nature-based solutions, financing barriers, public finance, private finance, public-private coordination, co-financing, ecosystem services valuation, blue-green infrastructure, urban green space, urban agriculture, urban trees, climate change mitigation and adaptation, urban sustainability
- MeSH terms
- Sustainable Growth, Cities, Trees
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
