NbSI announcements

The Club of Rome have written an open letter to global leaders, calling for the response to the current global health and financial crises to address the other crises we are facing in concert: the biodiversity and climate crises. The signatories recognise that attempts to stimulate the economy in the recovery from COVID-19 could [...] Read more Tweet April 2, 2020

The International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCAD) in Bangladesh, which is supported by the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, held a workshop with the Bangladesh Planning Commission to discuss the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) in national development plans. The workshop formally introduced the concept of NbS to relevant government departments, and stimulated discussion of [...] Read more Tweet April 1, 2020

We co-authored a briefing paper for the Net Zero Network looking at the contribution of nature-based solutions and other aspects of land use to achieving net-zero emissions in the UK. Key points include: 1) Nature-based solutions can be used to increase the size of natural carbon stores and keeping existing stores intact. This is alongside [...] Read more Tweet March 24, 2020

We talked to Carbon Brief about tree planting in the UK.  If the UK government’s tree-planting targets are achieved, even with optimistic estimates of carbon sequestration they would only provide a small proportion of the total carbon capture required to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) predicts that (with a [...] Read more Tweet March 19, 2020

David Shukman, Science Editor at the BBC, spent a few hours in Wytham Woods talking to Nathalie Seddon about the recent surge of public and media interest in tree-planting. The resulting article specifically looks at UK tree planting targets and raises some valid concerns: 1) The workforce for tree planting at the scale envisaged by [...] Read more Tweet March 18, 2020

Together with Oxford colleagues, Michelle Cain and Michael Obersteiner, Nat Seddon took part in a roundtable meeting at the Palace of Westminster to discuss “Achieving Net Zero: The Role of Land” with the Net Zero All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). Over the course of two hours, they discussed policy and science issues on what it will [...] Read more Tweet February 25, 2020

There is growing global consensus on the importance of addressing climate change and biodiversity loss together. Promoting policy coherence, and broader alignment with sustainable development goals necessitates active collaboration across sectors. Recognizing the importance of this, the European Commission (DG ENV Biodiversity Unit) convened a 2-day workshop to stimulate knowledge exchange between approximately 70 partners [...] Read more Tweet February 24, 2020

Together with a group of UK-based research, development and conservation organisations, we wrote a letter to the new CoP26 President, the Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, to ask him to consider some clear definitions and guiding principles around Nature-based Solutions and their implementation that should ensure they benefit the climate, nature and people, and [...] Read more Tweet February 13, 2020

We were invited by Green MP Steffi Lemke to share our understanding about Nature-based Solutions with a wide-ranging group of politicians, practitioners and scientists in the German Bundestag. This was part of a hearing on the importance of (and limits to) working with nature as a climate solution. There was much discussion about the [...] Read more Tweet February 10, 2020

On late-night radio, Nat Seddon discusses the importance of planting trees carefully and for the right reasons, and of ensuring other vital ecosystems, such as grasslands and peatlands in the UK, are not damaged in the process. Right trees in the right places (42 mins in)!