Leverage points for scaling nature‐based adaptation to climate change
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19583290 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Enora Bruley (0000-0003-3416-1868, Institut polytechnique de Grenoble, corresponding author), Ignacio Palomo (0000-0002-4573-5989, Institut polytechnique de Grenoble), Sandra Lavorel (0000-0002-7300-2811, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Bruno Locatelli (0000-0003-2983-1644, Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement), Titouan Dubo (0000-0002-8546-0561, Institut polytechnique de Grenoble) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pages | 2743-2758 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | People and Nature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2575-8314 • E-ISSN: 2575-8314 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/pan3.70147 |
| OpenAlex | W4414353477 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 96 |
Despite ambitious goals and policies, climate change adaptation efforts remain slow and insufficient compared to the pace and magnitude of climate change. Nature‐based Solutions (NbS) offer a holistic approach, with assumed co‐benefits that jointly address climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity conservation and other societal challenges. NbS are increasingly implemented to enhance local adaptation to climate change; however, they remain mostly marginal and isolated considering the magnitude of the challenge. Therefore, pathways to rapidly scale NbS are urgently needed. We hypothesise that NbS implementors are limited in their scaling strategies by their decision context. We propose an empirical framework for systemic analysis of decision contexts for scaling NbS, showcased for the Grenoble Region in the French Alps. We use mixed qualitative methods—policy and strategy document analysis, interviews and workshops with NbS experts, to explore a pathway to a conducive decision context. To characterize this context and the pathway to scaling, we identified the main leverage points, their underpinning levers and their interactions. According to workshops participants, NbS scaling should be supported by a combination of several deep and some shallow leverage points working simultaneously, including knowledge production and sharing, values and perception, local governance, supportive policies, financial support and landscape planning culture. Our results stress the need for more emphasis on how to support the integration of NbS principles into cultural roots and values; and on how to integrate deep leverage points into adaptation policies and strategies. However, this entails many challenges because of the diversity of actors with different objectives, values and power, and the multiple institutional scales and timeframes. We propose our integrative approach as a way to further support decision‐makers in navigating complex decision contexts for scaling NbS and building on simultaneous progress within each leverage point. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog
Climate change · Climate change adaptation · Decision support system · Empirical research · Pace · Underpinning · Climate change impacts on agriculture · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Governance and Planning
Implementing Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Areas
Nature-based solutions to address global societal challenges
Mapping the effectiveness of nature‐based solutions for climate change adaptation
Scaling the impact of sustainability initiatives
The science, policy and practice of nature-based solutions
Scaling Out, Scaling Up, Scaling Deep
Key Enablers of and Barriers to the Uptake and Implementation of Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Settings
Nature‐Based Solutions for Europe's Sustainable Development
Mainstreaming climate adaptation
Five Configurations for Scaling Up Social Innovation
Understanding the value and limits of nature-based solutions to climate change and other global challenges
Contributions of nature-based solutions to reducing people’s vulnerabilities to climate change across the rural Global South
The coordinates of scaling
What’s behind the barriers? Uncovering structural conditions working against urban nature-based solutions
A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change
Mapping ecosystem services bundles in a heterogeneous mountain region
Nature’s contribution to adaptation
Applying the pathways to nature connectedness at a societal scale
Levers and leverage points for pathways to sustainability
Disentangling the complexity of human–nature interactions
Leveraging Nature‐based Solutions for transformation
Changing the decision context to enable social learning for climate adaptation
Adaptation pathways
Ecosystem-based Adaptation
Scaling up Solutions for a Sustainability Transition
Assessing nature-based solutions for transformative change
Mapping the evidence of climate change adaptation policy instruments in Europe
Negotiating Complexity
Leverage points for sustainability transformation
Operationalising the leverage points perspective for empirical research
Reconnecting with nature for sustainability
Amplifying actions for food system transformation
A novel approach for co-producing positive scenarios that explore agency
Using the three horizons approach to explore pathways towards positive futures for agricultural landscapes with rich biodiversity
Complementary ideas for the implementation of nature-based solutions
Priority knowledge needs for implementing nature-based solutions in the Mediterranean islands
What drives local climate change adaptation? A qualitative comparative analysis
Actions and leverage points for ecosystem-based adaptation pathways in the Alps
Core principles for successfully implementing and upscaling Nature-based Solutions
Mainstreaming sustainable innovation
Adapting transformation and transforming adaptation to climate change using a pathways approach
Values, rules and knowledge
Local levers for change
Catalyzing sustainability pathways
Challenging the obsession with local level institutions in country ownership of climate change adaptation
Examining the policy needs for implementing nature-based solutions in cities
Transitional path to the adoption of nature-based solutions
Barrier identification framework for the implementation of blue and green infrastructures
Governance models for nature-based solutions
Leverage points for sustainability transformation
Mainstreaming nature-based solutions through five forms of scaling
Scaling-up nature-based solutions. Lessons from the Living Melbourne strategy
Nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban areas
Co-creating climate future pathways for northwestern Ghana
Three horizons
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |