The concluding act of the NATURANCE Finance Innovation Festival 2026, hosted in Brussels and online during the first week of February 2026, was an exemplary platform to showcase the scope of the project and the community that has grown over the years around nature-based transformation.
The event consisted of three days of mixed-format sessions that covered the entire innovation lifecycle, from policy to place-based solutions. Discussions were accompanied by a shared call to action, recognising that bridging the Nature-based Solutions (NbS) financing gap requires the collaboration of a solid network of diverse stakeholders. As Douglas Mason, infrastructure resilience specialist and keynote speaker, highlighted: “We need to harness incentives to scale rapidly, remove barriers, and facilitate collaborations, and this festival brings that.”
A total of 145 unique participants joined the sessions online, while 138 unique participants attended in person at the beautifully restored neoclassical BIP Meeting Center. The first day recorded the highest participation (104 in-person + 93 online attendees), followed by the second (107 in-person + 56 online attendees) and the third day (83 in-person + 71 online attendees).
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Day 1 – The potential of blended finance
High-level speakers opened the event by framing the EU policy landscape. European Commission representatives commented on the scale of the investment gap. Romain Eche-Painagua, European Commission, DG ENV, Green Finance and Investment Unit, pointed out: “We know that we have a shortage of 700 billion. We need predictability, and we need to give clarity to the markets.” While risks are accelerating, efforts to build an enabling framework continue to progress, yet investment in nature-based innovation remains insufficient.
Additional perspective from the private sector and practitioners delved deeper into the issue, highlighting the imbalance between investment in nature and finance that actively harms it. Experts advocated for a more significant contribution from private financing to complement public investment efforts, accompanied by measures to redirect nature-negative financial flows. As Will Butler, GaiaSicura, emphasised, “The demand side of the markets is vital.” Without clearer revenue models, nature projects will remain difficult to finance at scale.
Download the slides and watch the recording of the first day.
Day 2 – Research for risk reduction
Zooming in from market trends to practical solutions, the second day focused on the tools and investment mechanisms to unlock scaling. By introducing NATURANCE Innovation Labs and other projects’ scientific results, various interactive sessions explored how academic research can support implementation and bridge the investment gap.
Insurance, a core pillar of the festival, emerged as a key lever for incentivising risk reduction and de-risking investments in NbS. Its effectiveness depends on factors such as market demand, affordability, and the availability of insurable assets. Speakers discussed the most effective insurance frameworks for climate resilience. Ariane Kaploun, AXA Climate, observed: “Parametric insurance is an adjustable, transparent, and fast mechanism compared to traditional insurance schemes.” Similar instruments could help turn climate resilience into a bankable proposition
Data and modeling, critical tools for unlocking NbS investments, took center stage during the second day. Models have the potential to quantify risk reduction, capture co-benefits, and provide insurers and investors with the evidence needed to make informed decisions, infusing trust in the private sector.
Download the slides and watch the recording of the second day.
Day 3 – Flipping the tile, from policy to action
The last day of the festival focused on legacy, with presentations of policy briefs by projects NATURANCE, ClimateFit, Invest4Nature, PIISA, and SOTERIA. The knowledge generated by the initiatives makes the case for standardized climate-risk data, premium discounts and subsidies to improve affordability, clearer rules for parametric insurance, and stronger EU frameworks spearheaded by cities and communities.
In a discussion that mixed urgency with pragmatism, speakers framed resilience as a question of scaling Nbs across different local contexts. A challenge echoed by Vanessa Bruynooghe, European Commission – EU Adaptation Mission, who stated: “You need everyone who benefits from adaptation at the table from day one: farmers, citizens, local authorities, banks.”
The final session featured a keynote speech by Remco Moen Marcar, Frank Lee and promoter of the well-known NK Tegelwippen (tile flipping) initiative, followed by the Naturethon 2025 Award Ceremony, which celebrated NbS proposals developed through the NATURANCE citizen-engagement initiative. The session highlighted how creative, community-led initiatives can drive change by combining public engagement with co-creation alongside local authorities, with experiences from representatives of local NbS projects in Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Spain.
Download the slides and watch the recording of the third day.