A guide with ample information organizations can apply to address natural climate measures that can help significantly reduce carbon emissions — including using incentives and market-based approaches — has been released by US Nature4Climate.
The group says the Decision-Maker’s Guide to Natural Climate Solutions Science can provide tools and information to help reduce emissions by as much as 30% by 2030. The guide includes data, research, articles, case studies and other resources to help businesses, organizations and policymakers implement carbon reduction programs based on natural areas.
US Nature4Climate says the guide helps explain the science behind how natural areas can help reduce emissions and provides direction on actively reaching goals. The tool can also track and provide updates on specific projects taking place across the country.
Topics include incentives, grants and market-based approaches to improve natural climate and working land problems. Farms, forests, soil health are among the topics that are broken out.
There is also information on the costs and benefits of regenerative agriculture and what impacts agriculture has on the environment. The guide includes a science-based section that focuses on research and a natural climate solutions toolbox, that offers strategies organizations can use from the coalition and other groups.
The EPA estimates that natural areas sequester 10% to 15% of US emissions each year, but according to the Center for American Progress and Conservation Science Partners the pace of natural land loss is offsetting the natural sequestration potential with an equal amount of emissions. Part of President Biden’s increasing emissions goals is a project called 30x30, which would preserve and improve the natural sequestration rate.
With natural capital and nature loss seen as important areas of focus for investors in 2022, other programs have shown the carbon impact of natural areas.
One data offering by CarbonSpace monitors emissions from farms, fields and forests. CarbonSpace says its information can help businesses monitor their land-based emissions throughout their supply chains.
CDP says implementing tactics called landscape and jurisdictional approaches can address deforestation and on a local level and used across corporate supply chains. The frameworks can bring companies together with local stakeholders and can be supported with governmental coordination, the organization says.
US Nature4Climate, which is a coalition of 10 conservation, sustainability and business organizations, focuses on how natural areas such as forests, farms, grasslands and wetlands can play a role in mitigating climate change. It says conserving, restoring and coming up with different ways of managing natural and working lands will play important roles in removing carbon from the atmosphere.
“Most decision-makers aren’t scientists and don’t have the time to navigate an ever-growing body of peer-reviewed research focused on natural climate solutions,” says Catherine McDonald, chair of US Nature4Climate. “Tracking down these strategies can be difficult, but the decision-maker’s guide aggregates information from dozens of sources all in one place.”
