Time for world to embrace natural climate solutions

As world leaders gather at the 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid this month, they will discuss concrete steps for meeting and increasing national emissions reduction targets. But, equally important, COP25 offers an opportunity to elevate one of the most powerful tools we have to address climate change: Nature.

Nature-based solutions (also known as natural climate solutions) leverage the world’s forests, grasslands, wetlands and soils to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Healthy ecosystems absorb and store carbon on their own. And, if they are protected, restored and managed sustainably, they can provide a third of the emissions reductions needed to meet the Paris climate agreement’s goal for 2030. In other words, nature is offering us an opportunity that we cannot afford to miss. Two years ago, scientists from The Nature Conservancy and its partners published new research showcasing nature-based solutions’ potential to fight climate change.

But natural climate solutions have continued to attract relatively little attention — and even less funding.

Fortunately, this may be starting to change. In September, nature-based solutions featured prominently at UN Climate Week in New York City. And the private sector itself has made new commitments, with a group of 230 international investors (representing $16.2 trillion in assets under management) calling on companies to take immediate action to address deforestation in their supply chains.

Much more investment is urgently needed. Although natural systems play a critical role in regulating the climate, nature-based solutions still receive less than 4 percent of total public funding for climate action. France, Sweden, South Korea, the UK and a few other countries have pledged to increase funding for international preservation and restoration efforts. But, unless more countries make similar commitments, natural climate solutions will not achieve the necessary scale.

Worse, natural systems that could be part of the solution to climate change are facing increasingly severe threats. We have all seen the recent images of fires raging through the Amazon rainforest, which plays a major role in regulating the world’s climate. Record high temperatures, environmental crimes, weak oversight, ineffective firefighting, and other factors have increased the vulnerability of systems that store a disproportionate share of the planet’s carbon.

And the Amazon is just one example.

The conversion and degradation of natural land and marine habitats is ongoing around the world. Such practices undermine our ability to adapt to climate effects like rising sea levels, and directly threaten our food security by wiping out species that pollinate crops, contribute to soil health, and provide habitats for fish and other marine life. Nature, climate and human well-being are intimately connected; none can be addressed in isolation. COP25 offers an opportunity for world leaders to seize on these connections in the run up to 2020, which will be a veritable “environmental super year.” In addition to finalizing an international high seas treaty and establishing a new framework for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, governments will also revisit their climate commitments at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

But any commitments that countries make at these meetings will mean little without concrete plans to back them up. We have the science and we have the solutions. What we need now is action to leverage the power of nature. Our shared existence on this planet depends on it.