Nature takes centre stage in climate conversations – Property Week and UKGBC’s COP round-up: Day 6

New international pledge for the protection of nature: Forty-five governments, led by the UK, will pledge urgent action and investment to protect nature and shift to more sustainable ways of farming. The action recognises that global land-use practices will need to adapt to ensure that environments can be protected while demand for food increases. Incorporated within the new £3bn International Climate Finance fund is £500m to help protect 5m ha of rainforests from deforestation and a £40m commitment to help set up the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate.

• Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-leads-45-governments-in-new-pledges-to-protect-nature

‘Win-wins’ for nature and climate through Nature-based Solutions: A new Nature-based Solutions Initiative paper briefing reviewed the capacity of NBS to deliver a critically required ‘win-win’ scenario for biodiversity and climate-change adaptation. The briefing included a number of recommendations for policymakers, which focused on ensuring that nature-based climate policies and targets explicitly support biodiversity, account for its ecosystem health, and tackle both the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss.

• Source: https://www.naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org/news/nature-based-solutions-biodiversity-climate-change-adaptation-briefing/

Comments from Chris Moss, UKGBC’s Resilience and Nature-based Solutions project coordinator, on today’s announcements:

- The announcements of Nature Day have demonstrated an increasingly high-profile recognition of the role our natural environment plays as a critical climate solution. Similarly, it has been promising to see a consideration of more regenerative approaches to land use, supported by reforms to destructive agricultural practices.

- Approaching the ecological and climate emergencies simultaneously and holistically is essential for tackling either of them effectively. Our global biodiversity is in free-fall and the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. We must approach both climate mitigation and adaptation with a nature-centric lens, whereby the benefits to biodiversity are valued and provided for.

- The central role of Nature-based Solutions within today’s announcements is welcome, given their capacity to restore and regenerate environments and enhance climate resilience across both urban and rural landscapes and at multiple scales.