Natural climate solutions. The way forward^☆

Abstract

Climate change is a global challenge that threatens global ecological security and sustainable development. Finding ways to mitigate their impacts is paramount through engineering carbon storage, low-carbon energy transition, or natural climate solutions (NCS). NCS involve a set of measures (e.g., afforestation, land restoration, biochar reuse or sustainable land use practices). Implementing NCS increases carbon sequestration and mitigates climate change at the lowest costs and greenest ways. In addition, NCS practices can improve multiple ecosystem services (ES) such as air quality, flood and erosion regulation, pest control, water purification, wild food biomass, recreation or landscape aesthetics. However, unsustainable implementation of NCS, such as over-afforestation of dense mono-forest, can lead to tradeoffs with water supply, wildfire risk, and decreased grasslands and croplands. Therefore, to optimise the NCS implementation, reducing the tradeoffs associated and transforming the “expand ecosystem area” to “improve ecosystem management efficiency” is vital. Although NCS can contribute significantly to mitigating climate change, systematic climate actions must be accompanied by a transformation in the global society and investment in new technologies. This will be key to addressing global challenges such as the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 14 (Life Bellow Water).

Keywords

Natural climate solutions / Climate mitigation / Ecosystem services / Tradeoffs / Sustainable Development Goals

Declaration of Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

C.Y. and W.Z. were supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42271292), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (Grant No. 2022-ZD-08), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China. P.P. was supported by the project MApping and Forecasting Ecosystem Services in URban areas (MAFESUR), financed by the Lithuanian Research Council. Nr. P-MIP-23-426.

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