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Quality of life and economic activities depend on ecosystems and the services they provide. This is especially important in urban areas where there is often a certain degree of detachment from the nature and its benefits. Nature can offer many smart and cost-effective solutions to numerous societal challenges which especially refers to challenges related to climate change, disaster mana-gement, health and well-being. When discussing nature and ecosystem services, one of the main solutions to bring the nature back to cities is the concept of Green infrastructure (GI).
When discussing the topic of nature and its benefits, especially in the context of solutions that can be planned in order to bring those benefits closer to people, it is important to note that GI is con-sidered to be one part of a much wider concept that encompasses various individual concepts re-lated to use of nature as a planning tool – Nature-based solutions (NBS).
The whole world, including Europe, is facing a number of challenges that arise as a result of climate change - rising temperatures, increased energy use, urban heat islands, frequent weather changes and the occurrence of extreme weather conditions, etc. At the same time, cities are still attractive places to live, and the share of residents living in them is constantly growing. This often leads to the spatial expansion of cities by occupying green areas, which at the same time contributes to the adverse impact of cities on climate change, but also weakens the resilience of cities to the effects of climate change.
There are direct environmental, ecological, economic, sociocultural benefits of Green infrastruc-ture. Focus of the following of this paper is on initiatives and policies that were recently developed, or are in the process of developing, and have a major impact on the development of GI in the EU in the years to come – mainly the European Green Deal, Cohesion Policy, Urban Agenda for the EU, New Leipzig Charter and Territorial Agenda 2030. All of these documents and initiatives pro-vide framework for enhancing the GI in the EU. This article processes GI and NBS in terms of Eu-ropean union policies and initiatives, financing opportunities and guidelines for enhancing GI and NBS.
