It has been 370 days since 91 leading scientists gave humanity twelve years to avert catastrophic climate change. The Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C on the 8th October 2018. But, with one year down and eleven to go, what progress has been made?
Fighting for the future
The last year has seen the rise of climate activist groups, Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future. The movements have a clear message; governments are not doing enough to tackle climate change.
This message initiated a wave of change across the globe in the form of weekly school strikes, civil disobedience and public marches. These initiatives amalgamated into the largest Climate strike the world has ever seen on September 20th 2019. Over seven million concerned citizens marched across 185 countries. On the morning of the strike, Fridays for Future pioneer, Greta Thunberg joined forces with environmentalist, George Monbiot. They released a video on the importance of natural climate solutions (NCS). The video communicates NCS as the most cost-effective mechanism to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.
Video taken from Natural Climate Solutions Youtube
The video's sentiment echoes Griscom et al.'s findings: nature has the potential to provide over one-third of the climate mitigation solutions needed between now and 2030, to keep global warming within 2 °C, when compared to pre-industrial levels. NCS work by drawing down CO2 from the atmosphere, capturing it via photosynthesis and storing it as carbon. When locked up in natural stores, there is less CO2 left in the atmosphere to trap heat and intensify global warming.
Nature Now in NYC
The day after the climate strike, representatives from governments, companies, civil society and the public met for the 11th annual New York Climate week. Each year, Manhattan plays host to a week-long series of meetings and events to run in parallel with the United Nations general assembly. The week provides an opportunity for participants to share progress and solutions to fight climate catastrophe. Since 2015, the summit has acted as a forum for governments to ratify and build on commitments made as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The Nature Now hub at Climate Week NYC - home to one-third of events at this year's summit. Photo: Daisy Payne
Mirroring their mitigation contribution, a third of this year's events were dedicated to NCS. The Nature Now hub hosted four days of sessions, showcasing the abundance of NCS available. Solutions from the world’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems included:
Conservation, reforestation and afforestation of forests
Commitments and coalitions to reach zero-deforestation in companies' commodity supply chains
Agroforestry to improve soil quality
Mangrove planting initiatives
Seagrass and kelp farm permaculture
Coral restoration
Although there was a much-needed spotlight on NCS at the summit, takeaways from the Nature hub were bleak. Attendees of The New York Declaration on Forest's event, heard that five years since its inception, not one company is on track to achieve zero-deforestation in their supply chains, by the 2020 deadline.
Similarly, The Consumer Goods Forum made a resolution in 2010 on behalf of their 400+ member companies, to reach net-zero deforestation supply chains by 2020. None of these companies are on track for zero-deforestation either.
In the aquatic space, the IPCC released a new Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate during the summit. The report found that even within 1.5°C of warming, vital ecosystems are in grave danger. The IPCC considered sea grass and kelp forests to be at high risk of mortality from further heating and acidification, with coral reefs considered very high risk. The summit demonstrated that though there are plenty of NCS available, the government and company will to implement them is lacking.
What next for nature?
The world's tropical rainforests are still burning to clear land for agricultural expansion. Oceans are acidifying at an unprecedented rate. Up to 1 million species face extinction. Our most cost-effective opportunity for climate change mitigation is under siege from anthropogenic activity.
As it stands, only 2.5% of climate change mitigation funding is directed towards NCS. It is clear that nature has a wealth of solutions on offer. But the world is yet to meet this offer with a wealth of investment.
In the coming weeks, this blog will explore NCS. The NCS potential for absorbing CO2, the pros and cons of the solutions and the barriers for implementation.
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