CCS-Developed Nature-Based Solutions Tool Showcased at UNDP Regional Green Finance Meeting

October 21, 2026. The Center for Climate Strategies’ (CCS) work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on nature-based solutions was featured at “Green Finance and Innovation in LAC: Connecting Climate and Nature for Development,” which took place October 13–14 in Panama City, Panama. The regional meeting brought attention to financing solutions for climate action and nature, including practical tools that help countries assess potential investments.

Developed by CCS in collaboration with UNDP, the Nature-based Solutions Investment Calculator is an Excel-based decision-support tool for climate adaptation planning in Latin America and the Caribbean. It addresses a common challenge: how to assess the potential costs and benefits of nature-based solutions when local data and technical capacity are limited. Drawing on regional case studies, the tool provides cost and benefit benchmarks that users can supplement with their own data.

The tool helps policymakers and program managers screen and compare options such as mangrove restoration, forest rehabilitation, watershed protection, and agroforestry. Users can select country-specific inputs, identify climate risks and relevant ecosystems, and examine the economic performance of potential adaptation actions. This approach supports initial project scoping and prioritization while allowing assessments to be refined as additional local information becomes available.

At the Panama meeting, the calculator was included in the “Green Finance Lab: Practical Solutions for High-Impact Projects,” an interactive session conducted in Spanish. The session explored tools and methodologies developed under UNDP’s Green Innovative Finance in LAC project (GIF4LAC), connecting analytical resources with the practical challenges of financing climate and nature projects.

UNDP organized the meeting under GIF4LAC, the LAC Facility on Finance for Development, and the LEDS LAC Regional Platform, with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and in collaboration with INCAE Business School.

The showcase builds on CCS’s collaboration with UNDP to make nature-based adaptation assessment more accessible across the region. By translating case-study evidence into a practical tool, this work helps countries assess investment options that can strengthen resilience and advance climate and biodiversity priorities.

Learn more about CCS' UNDP work here.