The Center for Climate Strategies (CCS) is providing technical assistance to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to further develop its cost and benefit assessment tool for Nature Based Solutions (NBS). The revised and simplified tool (the UNDP NBS Tool) is a kickstart MS Excel-based instrument designed to orient policymakers and program managers on the potential costs and benefits of specific NBS actions. It supports initial, fast, and low-cost/benefit analysis of a broad range of impacts and actions without compromising transparency and reliability.

The UNDP NBS Tool is currently based on three pilot case studies in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean (El Salvador, Belize and Ecuador). It incorporates default-based values from each of the pilot countries that range from economic data such as GDP and sector and activities breakdown, to climate risks and cost and benefit performance benchmarks for NBS technologies and practices that can be selected to address each of the specific climate risks. The tool also provides the possibility for the user to add customized local data or new NBS actions. Net costs are assessed in the tool based on some initial design parameters for the selected NBS such as the number of hectares and the timing of implementation.

As part of this technical assistance, CCS has also provided detailed mapping for additional updates and expansions to the scope of assessment, methods, and tools, including integration of non-climate risks and climate mitigation actions, and expanded cost and benefit metrics. The tool will support comprehensive climate change adaptation planning and assessment and could cover the determination of risk and vulnerability for specific populations, activities, and places in all economic sectors and natural systems, as well as the identification and design of enhanced adaptive capacities to close vulnerability gaps while providing important co-benefits for health, livelihoods, equity, security, sustainability.