NbS Triple Win Toolkit: Economics and Finance 88 Political and legal barriers The political and legal landscape plays a crucial role in catalysing private sector investments in NbS, but it can also pose the following barriers: The absence of policies at supra-national, national and sub-national levels which require public or private compliance with certain environmental standards (e.g. preventing resource mismanagement in commodities and raw materials).131 The lack of suitable regulations that require, or provide incentivesfor, financial institutions to incorporate biodiversity risks ininvestment decision-making.131 The use of public procurement frameworks that favour default investing in conventional, ‘grey’ infrastructure without systematically evaluating natural infrastructure alternatives (i.e. NbS).139 The limited coordination between ministries and departments responsible for investment decisions (e.g. ministry for planning, energy or transportation) and those managing natural capital(e.g. a ministry of environment).137 The presence of legal frameworks that limit the extent to which private investments are allowed in public or communally heldassets – which NbS and their benefits usually revolve around– may pose a barrier to the flow of private financing to NbS.49 Environmental and socio-economic barriers Since NbS are embedded into specific economic, social and environmental contexts, barriers related to any of these components can strongly influence the viability of scaling an NbS project withthe support of private financing at local, national and global levels. These barriers can include: Lack of support from local communities and stakeholders: A specific NbS may induce significant alterations in the way local stakeholder interactions and communities are organised. For some stakeholders, such alterations may cause a loss (e.g. financial or cultural) compared with the business as usual scenario or be misperceived as such. This can result in opposition to the NbS or in limited support, which are crucial factors for the viability and design of a bankable and scalable NbS. Such a lack of support may for example come from incumbent project developers that do not have engineering manuals describing required ‘green’ methods or the specific expertise to undertake NbS projects, or from local communities that do not wish to make potentially transformative changes to their livelihoods.126,133 Complexity of gathering and communicating underlying socioeconomic evidence: The theoretical basis that is needed for designing an NbS is often absent. This is because conducting the required type of research and gathering the right data is usually time consuming, costly and demands specialised expertise. In addition, valuation exercises and results can vary to a great extent based on the method applied. The outcomes from these assessments can easily become too technical for stakeholders or project intermediaries to understand and are difficult to organise into a compelling and convincing message that illustrates the value of an NbS.138,141 Solutions to enable private sector investments in NbS In the context of the various barriers described above, several opportunities to overcome them and enable private sectorinvestments in NbS are mentioned in the reviewed evidence.