Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, writes that forests and land-use must play a key role in climate mitigation rather than relying on artificial carbon dioxide removal technologies. Forests are the world’s oldest carbon capture and storage technology, and can be deployed at a global scale without risk.
We would love to have all 195 signatory countries of the Paris Climate Agreement on board with natural climate solutions. How do you build a movement in support of natural climate solutions beyond the climate bubble and highlight that natural climate solutions are in danger of becoming the “Forgotten Solution” to climate change? One way was to enlist the help of 195 handpicked global ambassadors to highlight the importance of nature as a response to climate change.
If there is a last line of defense against climate change, it may well lie in the mangrove trees that cling to coastlines throughout the tropics. Locked in the mud of these unique tidal forests is thousands of years’ worth of accumulated carbon. Clear the mangroves — as humanity has been doing ever faster in recent years — and that carbon is slowly released into the atmosphere, where it accelerates global warming.
Mangrove forests, due to their rich soils are one of our most effective systems to absorb and store carbon. In fact, they can store three to four times more carbon on an area basis than most terrestrial forests. Not only that, they will store soil carbon for centuries to millennia.
The WWF has released its highly anticipated Living Planet Report (LPR) which presents an overview of trends in global biodiversity and natural systems. The report draws a depressing picture of wildlife around the world, under increasing pressure from human activities.
This month, we are focusing on mangroves. Mangrove forests are not only evocative of tropical coastlines, slow-moving waters and brackish water where freshwater and salt water mix. They are indicators of resilience and strength. A new Mangrove Restoration Map shows that restoration of lost mangroves worldwide could lead to the storage of an extra 69 million tonnes of carbon in aboveground biomass.
Big data — whether historical or real-time — can also help us tackle the problem, for example by locating harmful emissions or identifying pressure points along the supply chain. This transformative change in data capabilities is an example of what the World Economic Forum refers to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
To help achieve the necessary scale and impact, WBCSD announce that they’re working with key players in the business and NGO communities to mobilize investment in natural climate solutions through carbon finance.
Known as the “social cost of carbon” the effects of climate-change related economic impacts are shown to be the greatest for the world’s biggest carbon emitters. Using multiple future climate simulations researchers found that based on 2017 emissions the entire global economy is impacted to the tune of 16 trillion dollars. Read the full report here.
ActionAid and the Climate, Land, Ambition and Rights Alliance (CLARA) released a new report on climate change “Missing Pathways to 1.5°C: The role of the land sector in ambitious climate action.” In the aftermath of last week’s climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world must now ask tough questions on the transformation and development pathways that are urgently needed.