Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

CLIMATE-CHANGE MITIGATION

Looking to nature for solutions

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 18–19 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Completely stopping fossil fuel use may not be enough to avoid dangerous climate change. Recent research on the mitigation potential of conservation, restoration, and improved land management demonstrates that natural solutions can reduce emissions and remove atmospheric CO2 while safeguarding food security and biodiversity.

As a climate solution, nature should be a no-brainer. Forests and other ecosystems store carbon, harbour biodiversity, regulate rainfall, sustain livelihoods, support water and food security, and buffer communities from climate change impacts. They are ubiquitous, self-replicating, and need little maintenance or technological development. And yet the adoption of natural climate solutions has been a bumpy road. Scientists debate the size of the terrestrial carbon sink. Development organizations fret about the potential for reforestation to take valuable croplands out of production. And proponents of climate action have feared solutions that could be perceived as excusing continued fossil fuel use. As a climate solution, nature has seemed stubbornly resistant to widespread use. However, a new study may help change that. Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Bronson Griscom and colleagues1 quantify 20 distinct natural climate solutions that can store carbon and reduce emissions alongside energy transformations while safeguarding food security and biodiversity. They estimate these natural solutions could contribute 11.3 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Gt CO2e) per year of climate mitigation, paving the way for a range of implementation actions and new research.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Limiting warming to 1.5 °C requires near complete elimination of current CO2 emissions and multiple decades of net-negative global emissions, and a new study finds that natural climate solutions can contribute substantially to both.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Griscom, B. W. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 11645–11650 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Buchner, B. K. et al. Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2017 (Climate Policy Initiative, 2017).

  3. Seymour, F. & Busch, J. Why Forests? Why Now? The Science, Economics and Politics of Tropical Forests and Climate Change (Center for Global Development, 2016).

  4. IPCC Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report (eds Core Writing Team, Pachauri, R. K. & Meyer L. A.) (IPCC, 2015).

  5. Rogelj, J. et al. Nat. Clim. Change 5, 519–528 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Mahowald, N. M., Ward, D. S., Doney, S. C., Hess, P. G. & Randerson, J. T. Environ. Res. Lett. 12, 94016 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Baccini, A. et al. Science 358, 230–234 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Rogelj, J. et al. Nature 534, 631–639 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gentry, R. et al. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 1, 1317–1324 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Rockström, J. et al. Science 355, 1269–1271 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia, USA

    Will R. Turner

Authors
  1. Will R. Turner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Will R. Turner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Turner, W.R. Looking to nature for solutions. Nature Clim Change 8, 18–19 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0048-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0048-y

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing