Guided by WRI Indonesia, the SCeNe Coalition has developed the NbS Tool—an initiative that aims to democratize access to climate finance for Frontline Organizations (FOs) across Southeast Asia to engage in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) projects.
What is the NbS Tool and why was it developed?
Guided by WRI Indonesia, the SCeNe Coalition has developed an NbS Tool—an initiative that aims to democratize access to climate finance for Frontline Organizations (FOs) across Southeast Asia to engage in Nature-based solution (NbS) projects.
Many FOs currently lack commercial readiness, technical knowledge, and financial resources to develop NbS projects and tap into the expanding carbon markets. Acting as a crucial link between NbS projects and carbon credit markets, this tool opens significant funding opportunities, particularly for FOs facing challenges in market accessibility.
In response to projections indicating a potential funding gap of $8-32 billion by 2030, driven by a demand for carbon credits surpassing supply by 635Mt, the NbS Tool strategically positions itself to bridge this financial divide. Beyond its financial role, the tool acts as a guide, simplifying the carbon certification process and aiding in the creation of standardized documents. These documents articulate the comprehensive impact of NbS projects on carbon reduction, biodiversity preservation, and the well-being of local communities.
More than a financial facilitator, the NbS Tool plays a comprehensive role in directing carbon investor funds toward FOs in Southeast Asia. Simultaneously, it is committed to raising industry standards by enhancing methodologies for estimating, measuring, and documenting the diverse impacts of NbS projects, emphasizing not only environmental but also community and biodiversity outcomes.
In essence, the tool represents a significant step towards a more accessible, impactful, and standardized approach to NbS project development and funding in the region.
What are the tool's key attributes and features that set it apart from similar solutions?
The tool works through three features:
It Analyzes Current Conditions and Triple-Benefit Data: This functionality helps FOs and investors evaluate project baseline data by specifying the project location and leveraging spatial analysis capabilities. It empowers users to make informed decisions based on comprehensive baseline data analysis. [1]
It Generates Project Documents: This function simplifies the creation of project documents after analyzing baseline data, saving time and enabling data-driven project proposals. [2]
It Showcases Project Portfolio: This function focuses on displaying the project portfolio, highlighting projects with the highest potential in conservation, social development, and carbon impact. It empowers users to prioritize impactful initiatives by providing key project information.
The NbS Tool is free-to-use, standing out for its commitment to accessibility. This adds an extra layer of innovation, ensuring that organizations, regardless of size or financial capacity, can benefit from the tool's capabilities. It democratizes access to crucial data and project insights, making it a valuable resource for a broad spectrum of users.
Who are the main target users of the NbS Tool?
The NbS Tool is specifically designed for FOs and investors who want to understand the NbS potential in their specific or targeted area.
FOs refers to any type of organization or institution (typically local NGOs, community/indigenous groups) who is directly on the ground to run the project implementation and engage directly with local community and stakeholders in the project area.
Investors refer to any institution who wants to fund the NbS project development in general, or anyone who wants to support carbon project development.
How regular is the data refreshed and how does the tool address issues around data security/prevention of abuse of data use?
Our data is divided into two types of data, remote sensing and non-remote sensing data. For remote sensing data, updates will be done annually.
For non-remote sensing data, the updates will follow the data source updates. Some of the data are updated annually while others are updated every 3 to 5 years.
Will the user be able to store their own data or information in the NbS Tool?
The tool is designed to support FOs to manage their own data and generate project documents seamlessly. If FOs have their own data to complement the data layers that are provided in the NbS Tool, users can incorporate their data in the Tool, but users need to sign-up and make the account for NbS Tool.
Once they have the account, they will be requested to agree on a privacy policy that allows the NbS Tool to store their data. The NbS Tool will protect users’ data and will not share with any parties without the user's consent.
Was the tool developed with any support or involvement of Google?
The NbS Tool’s development is funded by Google.org and supported by Google.com.
Version 1 of the tool will be launched at COP28. What features will it include and what’s next after the tool is launched?
In the V1 of NbS Tool, The two main features will be available:
Interactive map: provides analysis of Current Conditions and Triple-Benefit Data for users. This function helps FOs and investors evaluate project baseline data by specifying the project location and leveraging spatial analysis capabilities. It empowers users to make informed decisions based on comprehensive baseline data analysis.
Project Management: allows users to Generate Project Documents. This function simplifies the creation of project documents after analyzing baseline data, saving time and enabling data-driven project proposals. We provide two types of documents to be generated by users including General Project Documentation of information about Site information, Nature, People and Climate and also potential triple benefit outcomes. Another type of document is following specific Standard and Certification for Carbon Project development.
In its next iteration, the NbS Tool will incorporate a NbS Portfolio, a feature designed to showcase a set of criteria on biodiversity and social outcomes for high-quality projects. This NbS Portfolio will also showcase high-integrity triple-benefit NbS projects, which will inform market participants about NbS best practices.