Europe’s forests, wetlands, rivers and other ecosystems are essential infrastructure. They protect communities, support the economy and reduce climate and financial risks. The proposed Essential Infrastructure Plan would make nature measurable and investable through trusted data, coordinated regulation, financial incentives and priority restoration projects. Its aim is to mobilise public and private capital while strengthening existing environmental protections.
The project brings together partners with complementary expertise in environmental law, policy development, data infrastructure, finance, economic modelling, strategic advocacy, and political engagement. Together, they combine the analytical capacity needed to develop ambitious yet practical solutions with the experience required to navigate complex legislative and political processes.
Essential Natural Infrastructure refers to strategically planned networks of natural and semi-natural areas that deliver a wide range of ecosystem services essential for human wellbeing and economic stability. As defined in the EU’s Green Infrastructure Strategy, this encompasses terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems across both urban and rural spaces.
This includes:
Intact ecosystems provide us with clean water, store CO₂, secure our food through pollination, and prevent soil erosion. These ecosystem services are literally keeping us alive. Unlike gray infrastructure (roads, bridges, power grids), natural infrastructure operates continuously, self-regulates, and adapts — but only when we protect and restore it.
An analysis published by the European Central Bank reveals that nature degradation is a major and largely overlooked threat to Europe’s financial stability. 72% of the euro area’s 4.2 million non-financial corporations depend critically on at least one ecosystem service (such as clean water, pollination, soil erosion control, or flood protection), and 75% of all corporate loans in the euro area flow to these nature-dependent companies. This means that if ecosystems continue to deteriorate, affecting everything from crop yields to infrastructure resilience through increased flooding, the financial sector could face massive loan defaults and portfolio losses. Non-bank financial institutions are also exposed to the economic consequences of nature degradation and biodiversity loss. For example, approximately 30% of insurers’ investments are critically dependent on nature and the ecosystem services it provides. Supporting research from national central banks confirms the scale of this exposure: Dutch financial institutions hold €510 billion (36%) of their portfolios in nature-dependent assets, French institutions hold 42% of the value of securities in issuers critically reliant on ecosystem services.
In short, Europe’s economy is dependent on intact ecosystems and their services. The insufficient protection and restoration of our essential natural infrastructure is therefore not just an ecological concern but a concrete financial risk that could undermine economic stability if left unchecked.
Gray infrastructure requires constant maintenance to avoid catastrophic failure. Neglecting essential natural infrastructure is just as reckless and just as dangerous as ignoring our roads or power lines.
Here are some recent examples of natural disasters that were exacerbated by land degradation, poor planning, anthropogenic climate change and a general lack of investment in the resilience of essential natural ecosystems such as rivers, forests and urban green and blue infrastructure. There are, unfortunately, many more such examples.
Event | Economic Impact | Human Toll |
Mati Wildfire 2018 (Greece) Fast-moving wildfire near Athens; demonstrated the lethal combination of unmanaged forest vegetation, urban development, and climate-driven heat conditions. [1] | electricity distribution and water networks considerably damaged [2], damage to local agriculture (i.e. olive trees) and forestry | 102 fatalities, hundreds injured [3], 3,000 houses destroyed [2] |
Ahr/Erft Flood 2021 (Germany) Catastrophic flash flooding in the Ahr river valley, part of the broader July 2021 Western European floods. The event highlighted failures in early warning systems and inadequate floodplain management. | €33 billion in damages, 103 road bridges destroyed or heavily damaged, 106 km of roads and 115 km of railway tracks damaged [4] | 190 fatalities, hundreds injured; thousands of residents lost homes, entire villages were destroyed, 6 hospitals flooded, 17 schools damaged, 19 nursing homes evacuated [4, 5] |
European Summer Heatwaves 2022 Record-breaking heatwaves across Europe in summer 2022 led to the largest heat-related mortality event ever recorded in the continent’s history. Multiple consecutive heat domes affected most of southern and central Europe. | Loss of productivity, infrastructure damage, agricultural damage due to heat/drought conditions | 61,672 heat-related deaths in 35 European countries [6] |
Emilia-Romagna Floods 2023 (Italy) Two rounds of torrential rainfall led to widespread flooding, landslides, and river overflow across northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region. | €8.5 – 10 billion in damages [7, 8], considerable damage to infrastructure and the agri-food sector [9], reduction in regional GDP [8] | 17 fatalities [7], more than 36,000 people left homeless [10] |
Valencia Flood 2024 (Spain) Extreme rainfall in the Valencia region caused by an isolated low-pressure area at high levels brought over a year’s worth of precipitation; causing flash floods and landslides. | > €50 billion in damages estimated [11]; 0.65% of national GDP [12] |
The European Union and its member states have pledged to invest significantly in the conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems and to cut harmful subsidies:
Globally, the biodiversity funding gap is estimated at $700 billion per year. In 2022, 196 parties, among them the EU and all of its member states, adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It aims to halt and reverse nature loss and contains four long-term goals to be achieved by 2050: halt human-induced species extinction, use biodiversity sustainably, share biodiversity benefits equitably, and close the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year. Among the 23 targets to be achieved by 2030 are 30% conservation of land, sea and inland waters, 30% restoration of degraded ecosystems, and $500 billion/year reduction in harmful subsidies.
Furthermore, the European Nature Restoration Law sets legally binding targets for Member States to restore 20% of land and sea areas by 2030 as well as all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. The cost of implementing the Nature Restoration Law is estimated to be between €11.8 and €13.1 billion per year until 2030 solely for restoration activities. However, the existing Multiannual Financial Framework and the Member States’ budgets amounts to approximately EUR 9.4 billion per year, and will not be enough to cover the implementation of the Nature Restoration Law. There is, in fact, an estimated annual financing gap of between €2.4 to €3.7 billion until 2027. [14]
The European Environment Agency (EEA) estimates that there is a total annual gap of €21.4 billion between annual funding needs and projected biodiversity funding for the EU and its Member States for 2021-2027.
According to the EEA
“Strategic planning, and increased public and private investments, will be crucial to enhance the likelihood of meeting biodiversity investment needs. Moreover, integrating biodiversity investments into the sustainable finance agenda is vital for mobilising additional resources for biodiversity conservation.” [15]
The same logic applies to nature as it does to any other critical infrastructure: You wouldn’t drive across a crumbling bridge or endure blackouts from neglected energy infrastructure. Yet we routinely allow our natural systems — our floodplains, forests, and wetlands — to degrade without consequence. Protecting essential natural infrastructure doesn’t always mean new construction. Often, it means removing physical and policy barriers. It means working with ecological processes instead of against them. That is the smarter path forward.
Return on investment is compelling: Across ecosystems, geographies, and methodologies, the cost of protecting and restoring nature is consistently a fraction of the cost of letting it degrade further. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits. A meta-analysis of 2000–2021 peer-reviewed studies found that 71% of studies showed that NbS for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation are consistently cost-effective, with another 24% finding them cost-effective under certain conditions. 65% of studies found that NbS are always more effective in attenuating hazards compared to engineering-based solutions and 26 % found that they are partially more effective.
A report published by Swiss Re in 2024 found that the economic benefits of flood adaptation measures can be up to ten times the costs of post-disaster rebuilding. In less populated areas, nature-based solutions such as barrier island restoration or foreshore vegetation can be equally effective as gray infrastructure (such as dykes and levees). For example, floodplain restoration along the Lower Danube cost approximately €183 million. Annual earnings through ecosystem services (flood control, water purification, groundwater replenishment, sediment and nutrient retention, reservoirs of biodiversity, recreation, tourism, etc.) from restored floodplains are estimated to be €111.8 million per year. During the 2013 flood in the Danube, along the Lower Danube there was no flooding, although water was above the average level; demonstrating cost-effective flood prevention compared to what gray infrastructure alternatives would have required.
At least half our global economy moderately or highly depends on nature. Meanwhile, $1 spent on ecosystem restoration can provide economic benefits 7 to 30-times greater. Protection of diverse ecosystems is highly cost-effective and represents 80% of additional land area needed for nature-based solutions while absorbing only 20% of additional NbS finance by 2030.
UNEP’s 2026 State of Finance for Nature report identifies the following key priorities for action:
- Reforming harmful subsidies and aligning budgets with Rio Convention (UNFCCC, CBD, UNCCD) goals.
- Scaling government investment in nature-based solutions, particularly public goods.
- Government regulation and incentives to align investment with the value of nature and its services.
- Mandating disclosure of nature-related risks and impacts to shift incentives.
- Expanding blended finance and de-risking instruments and developing high integrity nature markets to mobilise private capital at scale.
Investment in natural infrastructure is not charity, but risk mitigation. When we restore floodplains, we reduce insurance claims. When we protect forests, we secure carbon storage. When we maintain pollinator habitats, we protect agricultural yields. Nature pays dividends. It also provides us with all the necessities of a good life: fresh water, clean air, food, building materials, livable cities, opportunities for recreation and relaxation. It provides beauty, excitement, and community, anchors traditions and customs, inspires and reminds us that we are part of a living world, not separate from it.
The EU already has regulation in place to protect existing natural systems and essential infrastructure. But it does not change economic user preferences and the funding gap is widening rather than closing. Current public spending patterns are also often inefficient for nature outcomes. The European Commission estimates that it costs €10.2 billion a year to protect, restore and manage Natura 2000 sites across Europe. However, despite this considerable investment, these sites are not securing the full implementation of goals of the Birds and Habitats Directives: Only 15% of protected habitats are in good condition and there has been a 42% drop in farmland birds since 1990. [16] Under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), approximately €387 billion (2021–2027) is allocated across two pillars. Of the ~€41.6 billion/year spent on direct payments (European agricultural guarantee fund = EAGF), ~€8–9 billion/year are spent on eco-schemes. Direct payments remain predominantly practice- or acreage-based rather than performance-based. Over the 2021–2027 cycle, €95.5 billion in CAP spending is dedicated to rural development, including climate action, environmental protection, and biodiversity measures (European agricultural fund for rural development = EAFRD), but monitoring frameworks lack robust biodiversity outcome indicators, making effectiveness difficult to verify.
To re-orient such expenditures toward verifiable ecosystem results (e.g., floodplain reconnection, soil-water retention, fire-resilient mosaics) with standardized monitoring, reporting and evaluation and outcome-based contracts, delivering more resilience per euro and saving significant damage costs, we propose an Essential Infrastructure Plan (EIP) for Europe’s natural infrastructure. The Essential Infrastructure Plan reframes nature from regulatory burden to economic asset — applying the same investment frameworks Europe uses for transport, energy, and digital networks. By treating ecosystems as essential infrastructure, Europe can secure supply chains against climate and nature-related shocks and build resilience. Investible nature assets allow for the mobilization of private capital and help to close the gap between limited public funding and necessary investments in natural infrastructure.
Europe’s environmental protection has relied on setting quality targets and following procedural rules. But putting these rules into practice has been difficult and expensive; trying to match broad standards with real-world complexity creates friction between permitting, enforcement, and actual land use. Technology is changing this. We now have the foundations for treating ecosystems as measurable, manageable, and investable assets, similar to how we treat infrastructure or financial markets. Europe now has continental satellite data (Copernicus), standardized biodiversity metrics, and financial reporting frameworks that connect ecology to capital markets. What’s still missing is the integration of these big-picture datasets with on-the-ground technologies: in-situ sensors, environmental DNA, artificial intelligence, and citizen science. Combining these would create a continuously updated digital twin of Europe’s land- and seascapes: auditable, interoperable with financial and regulatory systems, and capable of verifying real ecological outcomes at the farm, forest, and watershed level. This technology, EU-led and independent of foreign institutions, did not exist before. It is the missing link between environmental ambition and accountable, investable delivery.
The Essential Infrastructure Plan sets Europe’s legal, financial, technological and ecological capacities into a coherent framework for resilience. It is structured around seven mutually reinforcing elements that anchor nature as essential infrastructure for the EU’s long-term security and prosperity.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Legal Anchoring & Policy Coherence | Build on and connect existing laws (Habitats, Birds, Water Directives, Nature Restoration Regulation) into clear, financeable projects and practices that can be prioritized, planned, and delivered. Inside a defined network of priority areas and zero-use zones; the EIP would provide a transparent framework for development and permitting, while also clarifying how land managers outside these areas can qualify for incentives if they maintain or improve ecological integrity. Crucially, the EIP does not weaken existing obligations under the Climate Law or Nature Restoration Regulation; it translates them into delivery pathways that investors, companies, and public authorities can use. |
| 2. Trusted Data & Registries | Create an EU Nature Cadastre — a single, authoritative map and record for each area of land. It should bring together EU satellite observations (Copernicus), Member-State and local datasets, and the Green Deal Data Space. Each record needs a clear change history, independent assurance, and an easy public dashboard that meets access-to-information rules, so that everyone can rely on the same facts. |
| 3. Essential Landscapes | Based on the Nature Restoration Regulation, Habitats and Birds Directive, the EIP identifies and designates Projects of Common European Nature (PCEN). These are Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and ecological corridors that deliver transboundary resilience. Governance mirrors energy PCIs, including one-stop scoping and cross-border cost-sharing. Member States can enable public or private entities as applicants and implementation agents. Selection would be based on data compatible indicators and set a realistic frame to achieving the 30/10% targets set by the Global Biodiversity Framework, providing a clear investment case. From the outset, a defined area would include zero use zones as well as buffer zones in which some economic use is permitted if it does not threaten the effectiveness of the zero use zones. Various forms of land use would be possible, much like in existing national park legislation on the Member State level. Large protected areas thereby function as intersections of the essential green infrastructure, linked by corridors with sustainable management to ensure connectivity and resilience. In analogy to TEN-T and TEN-E, Europe could define Projects of Common European Nature (PCEN) and create specific markets for those areas to increase tourism and regional economies. |
| 4. Modern Nature Markets | The EU Commission’s Roadmap towards Nature Credits frames credits as a voluntary, high-integrity tool to complement public funding and reward outcomes beyond legal baselines, without weakening environmental obligations. To make nature credits a core funding pillar of the EIP, the EU needs to create modern nature markets that are transparent and attractive to investors. |
| 5. Essential Infrastructure Entity Status | Recognize farmers, foresters, community associations and other land and water managers maintaining ecological integrity as utilities-equivalent entities with streamlined funding access. |
| 6. Business Incentives | Rely on a Nature Finance Toolkit built around three elements— incentives, risk-transfer, and supervisory recognition — and mark qualifying projects as “EIP-safe” so both finance specialists and non-finance readers know they are endorsed. Companies and land stewards can earn “EIP-safe” status by proving their land maintains or improves ecological integrity—verified independently. Once qualified, three things happen: (1) Incentives provide tax and accounting benefits so investments are predictable; (2) Risk-transfer tools like insurance protect against failures, backed by public reinsurance where needed; (3) Supervisory recognition means regulators treat these assets as lower-risk, improving lending terms. The result? Natural capital becomes visible on spreadsheets, credible in boardrooms, and investable at scale. |
| 7. Pioneer Projects | To prove the Essential Infrastructure Plan works in practice, Europe needs pilot projects — national parks and large landscape initiatives are natural candidates — that combine ecosystem protection with local jobs, tourism, and sustainable enterprises. These Projects of Common European Nature (PCENs) would show how an EU-grade registry, independent monitoring, and involvement of farmers and foresters can work together with blended funding from LIFE, InvestEU, or nature credits. By stabilising local incomes and involving communities in governance, such pilots support both democracy and resilience. Independent analyses suggest they could generate hundreds of millions in regional revenue within a decade; proving that conservation and economic development can go hand in hand. The lessons learned will guide scaling across the entire EU. |
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