FESTIVAL | Insurance and Investment Opportunities for Nature-Based Transformations
The second NATURANCE Festival took place on 3–5 February 2026 at the Brussels Info Place Meeting Centre in Brussels, Belgium. Building on the outcomes of the first Festival in Laxenburg, this edition brought together policymakers, researchers, financial institutions, and practitioners to explore insurance and investment opportunities for nature-based transformations.
The Festival provided a space for exchange between communities working on climate adaptation, finance, and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), showcasing emerging approaches to mobilising capital and managing risk through nature-positive strategies. Participants reflected on lessons learned from ongoing initiatives, explored synergies among related projects, and identified practical pathways for scaling up implementation.
The three-day programme covered policy discussions on day one, financing and insurance solutions on day two, and concluded with legacy recommendations and local case studies on day three. As the last event in the NATURANCE Festival series, the Brussels event served as a culminating moment for NATURANCE, capturing key insights, policy messages, and collaborative legacies that can inform future European action on nature-based finance and insurance.
Topics addressed during the conference included:
- EU & private financing frameworks for nature-positive action
- Innovative insurance, risk-transfer, and parametric resilience models
- Data, valuation & cost–benefit tools to support NbS business cases
- Investment readiness, markets & capital mobilisation for NbS
- Policy, urban action & citizen engagement to boost impact
Day 1 – February 3, 2026
The first day of the festival presented insights from EU policymakers and the private sector, stressing the urgent need to scale finance for Nature-based Solutions. Speakers called for predictable, science-based foundations, stronger project pipelines, and blended finance, highlighting bankability, biodiversity targets, and member-state delivery as key strategic priorities. The featured sessions critically assessed the challenges ahead, setting the tone for more applied and practical sessions in the following days.
Day 2 – February 4, 2026
The second day focused on practical solutions, showcasing innovative insurance and investment mechanisms. Through interactive workshops, breakout sessions, and peer exchange, participants explored tools, data, and partnerships that strengthen resilience. The day concluded with a streamed plenary session that explored the costs and benefits of NbS for flood risk reduction and emphasized quantitative modeling, context-specific insights, and insurer demand. Key actionable ideas included combining NbS with agriculture, fostering public–private coordination, and using green incentives to promote uptake.
Day 3 – February 5, 2026
The third day focused on collective impact and legacy, featuring insights from sister projects, practical case studies, and citizen voices. The final sessions explored how scaled, context-sensitive approaches can drive resilience by reminding the cost of inaction and the power of combining Nature-based Solutions, data, and finance to support communities, promote equity, and connect local efforts with EU-level strategies.
Legacy policy recommendations in the form of policy briefs were presented by the projects NATURANCE, PIISA, SOTERIA, INVEST4NATURE, and CLIMATEFIT, aligned with the Festival’s two pillars: insurance-based risk transfer and investment in Nature-based Solutions.
Thank you to all those who attended in person and online. The festival reached over 150 participants on each day!
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