The COP30 climate summit is taking place in the Brazilian Amazon – the most biodiverse place on the planet. This pivotal location highlights the reality: we cannot solve the climate crisis without putting nature front and centre.
Climate change is driving nature loss, and the destruction of natural ecosystems, in turn, fuels the climate crisis. These are interlinked crises that must be solved together.
What’s the connection between nature and climate change?
Climate change is the greatest long-term threat to nature. It’s already affecting wildlife and accelerating biodiversity loss all over the world, and the impacts will become increasingly severe the more the planet warms.
Crucially, nature is also a critical ally in the fight against climate change. Forests, wetlands and oceans absorb and store carbon dioxide, so protecting and restoring these ecosystems is a smart, cost-effective way to fight climate change.
At the same time, natural ecosystems can help people and wildlife adapt to climate change and withstand its impacts:
- Mangroves and coral reefs shield coastal communities from storm surges and rising sea levels.
- Wetlands act like sponges, soaking up flooding and providing people and animals with essential water during droughts.
- Urban trees and green roofs naturally cool cities during heatwaves.
Is nature being recognized in climate policies?
Up to a point. Organizations like WWF have been highlighting its importance for many years, and the role of forests has been part of climate negotiations for two decades.
But it’s only in the last few years that nature has become a core part of COP discussions and that countries have started to explore the full potential of nature-based solutions within their climate plans.
Many national climate mitigation and adaptation plans now include commitments to protect and restore not only forests but also wetlands, mangroves, soils and marine ecosystems. There’s also work happening to align national climate plans with the biodiversity strategies and action plans that countries need to prepare under the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Global Biodiversity Framework.
While there’s been encouraging progress, there’s still a lot of room for improvement – and, as with most elements of climate action, a need for money. To meet climate goals, funding for nature-based solutions needs to grow from around US$200 billion today to more than US$500 billion per year by 2030.
What are nature-based solutions?
Nature-based solutions are about using natural ecosystems to fight climate change. Examples include:
- Reforestation and planting climate-resilient trees
- Restoring coastal habitats like mangroves and seagrass meadows
- Regenerating wetlands
- Introducing farming practices that store more carbon in the soil.
Nature-based solutions aren’t an alternative to phasing out fossil fuels, but they’re an essential complement – it’s been estimated that they can provide a third of the emissions savings the world needs by 2030. And they’re not just about climate mitigation – well-designed nature-based solutions also help restore biodiversity, improve local livelihoods and well-being, and help people and wildlife adapt to climate change.
Protecting biodiversity also boosts resilience: healthy ecosystems help people and wildlife survive extreme weather, and they bounce back faster from droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme heat.
Taken from: https://wwf.panda.org/?15096441/The-Amazon-connection-Why-nature-is-climates-ally-at-Cop30