Nature-based solutions (NbS) can play an important role in helping the UK to adapt to the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise, floods, droughts, and heatwaves. NbS involve stakeholders working together to protect, restore, connect and enhance the natural assets that underpin the resilience of our economies, health, and well-being, providing benefits for both people and nature. Globally, there are many initiatives to protect forests and plant more trees with the aim of capturing and storing carbon, but there is much less recognition and support for the role of NbS in climate change adaptation. In this report, we summarise evidence on the many ways in which NbS can address climate impacts in the UK, and explore the barriers and enabling factors that influence their wider uptake. We show how NbS can help to address 33 of the 34 risks identified in the third Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3), how they can help us adapt to a 2°C warmer world, and how they can be better integrated into UK and Devolved Administration policy, including in the next round of National Adaptation Plans.
