‘Climate Resilient City’ documentary highlights role of finance

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The second International Climate Adaptation Summit was held in the Netherlands on 25 and 26 January. The online event included the first screening of the documentary The Climate Resilient City Explained. NextGreen provided input for the documentary based on its analysis of action on climate adaptation in the financial sector.

The 25-minute documentary shows how cities can be made climate-resilient. This is done using examples and lessons learned from a number of Dutch cities, which concluded their City Deal Climate Adaptation with this documentary. The stories emphasize the importance of collaboration between municipalities, water boards, provinces, national government, citizens, companies and financial institutions. This is completely consistent with the results of the analysis that NextGreen has been working on together with Climate-Proof Together (Samen Klimaatbestendig).

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City of Utrecht’s ‘Rooftop Vision’

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Photo credit: Jan Knoop

The City of Utrecht has asked NextGreen to help it develop a ‘Rooftop Vision’ in 2021. With ‘no rooftop unused’ by 2050 as the overall goal, the municipality is working on a ‘Sustainable Rooftop Ambition’ document. Starting out from existing policy goals, a detailed ambition document will be drawn up to set out what the city’s rooftop landscape should look like. Internal dialogue and the participation of various stakeholders in the city should create an understanding of how and where energy rooftops (e.g. solar panels), green-blue rooftops (which help to reduce run-off), biodiverse rooftops and multifunctional rooftops can help us to cope with heat stress and flooding, the transition to renewable energy, and to improve biodiversity. Furthermore, the ambition document will provide guidelines for realising a sustainable rooftop landscape through a combination of policy instruments and innovative ways of financing.

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11 New signatories to the Pledge

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With 11 new signatories to the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, 2020 will close with a group of signatories consisting of 37 financial institutions from 13 different countries. This was celebrated at the European Business and Nature Summit (EBNS) on 9 December 2020.

During the opening session on 9 December, we welcomed 11 new signatories to the Pledge. The session was opened by EU Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness, and included key notes by CIOs from Allianz France, Federated Hermes and Deutsche Bank.

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Climate adaptation and the financial sector

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Kick-off: Climate Adaptation Assessment in the Finance Sector

What role can financial institutions play in making the Netherlands climate-robust, and what opportunities are there for collaboration with governments? Together with the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO), NextGreen has spoken to 20 financial institutions to analyse the playing field.

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Guidance on biodiversity for the financial sector

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Together with financial institutions and de Horde Advies, NextGreen has produced a Guidance document to accompany the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge. The Finance@Biodiversity Community, which initiated this Pledge, felt the need for an overview of developments and sources. The overview briefly describes risks and opportunities for financial institutions when it comes to biodiversity and explains each of the commitments. The Pledge signatories commit to Collaboration and knowledge sharing, Engaging with companies, Assessing impact, Setting targets and Reporting publicly on biodiversity impact by 2024 at the latest.

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Model for decision support

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Rooftop Garden Maandag Rotterdam Blaak. Design and realisation: Boekel Tuin en Landschap

In order to help municipalities and water boards to determine their policy mix to promote climate adaptation on private land, the working group decision support is developing a framework.

There are many policy tools that municipalities and water boards can use to promote climate adaptation on private land. And there are even more digital tools that are meant to facilitate the choice between the different policy tools. The working group decision support is therefore developing an overarching framework that will bring together these tools in a structured way.

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Launch Finance for Biodiversity Pledge

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On September 25 at 15:00 CEST, 26 financial institutions will launch their Finance for Biodiversity Pledge during the United Nations Nature for Life Hub. Don’t miss it! In the Pledge, the participating banks, investors and other financial institutions will commit to start working for biodiversity. They will also call upon other financial institutions and heads of state to do the same, so that together we can help reverse global biodiversity loss.

Behind the scenes at NextGreen, we are working hard together with Anita de Horde to prepare for this historic event. The new website is now online and a film maker is busy creating videos in which the CEOs of these institutions make their statements for the launch.

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NextGreen endorses the Green Recovery Statement

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Green Recovery Statement NextGreen

Together with more than 250 businesses, NextGreen has endorsed the Green Recovery Statement, which was launched last Friday. The Dutch signatories pledged their support for making sustainability the cornerstone of COVID-19 recovery plans. Led by Jan Peter Balkenende, chairman of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition (DSGC), and former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the statement was presented to Minister Sigrid Kaag on June 19th, also the day on which the European Council discussed the COVID-19 recovery plan.

NextGreen signed the Green Recovery Statement, stating:

“The time has come to accelerate transformative change jointly. Connecting business and governments, finance and NGOs, to align with the SDGs. We need to collaborate and focus together on transforming key economic processes, like procurement, pricing, taxing and advertisement regulation, and building resilience for the next crisis.”

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Kick-off: Climate Adaptation Assessment in the Finance Sector

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Kick-off: Climate Adaptation Assessment in the Finance Sector

Over the next few months, NextGreen – commissioned by ‘Climate-Proof Together’ – will be working on an inventory of ongoing initiatives in the field of climate risks and climate resilience in the financial sector. The aim is to create a clear overview of current developments and to identify the next steps that financial institutions can take in conjunction with real estate developers, property owners and companies in order to adapt their policy and projects to integrate climate resilience.

The development of a ‘common language’ is important in the interaction between financial institutions and municipalities and water boards. It will make their dialogue on climate-proof design more effective for developers, property owners and companies, and it will provide a quicker insight into joint solutions.

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National Rooftop Plan – Online Kick-Off and Working Sessions

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May 14th 2020: Online kick-off with over 50 partners and board transfer of Green Deal Green Roofs to National Roof Plan

Online kick-off and New Board Members

Together with more than 50 partners, we attended the online launch event for the National Rooftop Plan on May 14th. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, no physical meeting was possible, but almost all the partners were able to attend the online kick-off. The action plan for the National Rooftop Plan 2020-2024 (Nationaal Daken Plan – NDP in Dutch) was presented by the new board of the NDP. They outlined the four focus points of the NDP partners for greening the rooftops of the Netherlands while at the same time working towards other sustainability goals, such as cooling, insulation, water collection (during peak rainfall), energy production, increase in biodiversity, and extra green user space in an increasingly crowded city. Because your roof can be so much more than ‘just a roof over your head’!

Focus points of the NDP

In the next few years, the 56 partners of the National Rooftop Plan will work together to promote multifunctional roofs. They will work in various working groups on the NDP’s four focus points:

  • Focus point 1. Broadening the mindset:
    Goal: To raise awareness of the multifunctional possibilities of flat roofs.
  • Focus point 2. Embedding in policy: regional and local (and national)
    Goal: Municipalities, water boards and provinces embed multifunctional roofs in their policy; to transform bottlenecks into opportunities in national policy as effectively as possible.
  • Focus point 3: Stimulating Financing:
    Goal: Rooftop owners, decision-makers and other stakeholders use stimulating financing models to finance multifunctional roofs.
  • Focus point 4: Skilled professionals
    Goal: An increasing number of trained professionals who can and want to contribute to realizing multifunctional roofs.
Getting started with the focus points and working groups

On May 28th, the NDP partners met online again, this time in smaller groups to discuss the different focus points. Together, they came up with concrete objectives and discussed the desired products for each focus point. In addition, the partners indicated how they would contribute to these products and to the action that is needed. The inspiration and synergy during these online working sessions was very promising for the future of the rooftop landscape in the Netherlands!

NextGreen carries out the process management of the National Rooftop Plan together with the Mediation consultancy Stroom and Onderstroom (Carleen Mesters). We are looking forward to supporting the NDP partners as they continue to work on the focus points. With a clear focus on the ultimate goal: more multifunctional roofs in the Netherlands with a positive impact on the climate, sustainable energy, biodiversity and health!

For more information about this project and an overview of the partners and the possibility of joining this project: see project page National Rooftop Plan.