Nature-based Solutions Initiative
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On the misuse of nature-based carbon ‘offsets’
Nature-based solutions (NbS*) are being misused for greenwashing. Promoting NbS as carbon 'offsets' while continuing business as usual in fossil fuel use is not a solution to climate change. In fact, it can encourage continued or even increased fossil fuel consumption leading to more emissions o [...] read moreNew £10m Agile Initiative announced, led by NbSI Director
A new Oxford University research programme, The Agile Initiative, has been established to provide rapid solutions to critical environmental issues. Based at the Oxford Martin School with £10 million of funding from the Natural Environment Research Council and led by NbSI Director Professor Nathalie [...] read more
Sink or swim: Forest Declaration Platform report on the role of IPLCs for NDCs
A recent Forest Declaration Platform briefing paper, ‘Sink or swim: How Indigenous and community lands can make or break nationally determined contributions‘, has been released by researchers from World Resources Institute and Climate Focus, exploring the role that IPLCs play in combating climate change.
The briefing paper focuses on IPLCs in four countries – Brazil, Colombia, [...] Read more
Tweet May 10, 2022
Tweet May 10, 2022
New UNCCD report on global land degradation and drought
The second edition of the Global Land Outlook report, GLO2: Land Restoration for Recovery and Resilience, has found that the world’s land area is now 40% degraded, and accelerating. The report states that if the current trend continues, a further 11% of the world’s land surface could be degraded by 2050.
The Global Land Outlook (GLO), [...] Read more
Tweet May 5, 2022
Tweet May 5, 2022
Professor Nathalie Seddon appointed to CCC’s Adaptation Committee
NbSI Director Professor Nathalie Seddon has been appointed to the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) Adaptation Committee, by the UK Government and Governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Adaptation Committee (AC) consists of experts in climate change impacts, science, environmental economics, conservation, public health and business. They provide independent advice to the UK and devolved [...] Read more
Tweet April 29, 2022
Tweet April 29, 2022
United Nations Environment Assembly agrees Nature-based Solutions definition
The Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) has made a resolution on adopting a multilaterally agreed definition of nature-based solutions (NbS); recognising the important role they play in the global response to climate change and its social, economic and environmental effects.
The UNEA-5 resolution formally adopted the definition of NbS as ‘actions to [...] Read more
Tweet March 3, 2022
Tweet March 3, 2022
Revised climate pledges show enhanced ambition for nature-based solutions
A total of 122 new NDCs were submitted last year, representing 148 signatories to the Paris Agreement. Our analysis of these new NDCs reveal enhanced ambition for nature-based solutions to climate change, with 84% of revised NDCs including the protection or restoration of ecosystems, or agroforestry, in their mitigation and/or adaptation plans, up from 78% [...] Read more
Tweet February 22, 2022
Tweet February 22, 2022
New UNEP Frontiers Report on emerging environmental issues
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Frontiers’ report examines the current emerging issues of environmental concern. The 2022 edition, Noise, Blazes and Mismatches?, looks at three concerns: urban soundscapes, wildfires and phenological shifts.
Chapter 1 examines city noise, drawing attention to noise pollution and its long-term physical and mental health impacts, along with measures that can be [...] Read more
Tweet February 21, 2022
Tweet February 21, 2022
Creating a Nature-Positive Future – UNDP report
A report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Creating a Nature-Positive Future, presents a path to enhance protected and conserved area coverage and quality to secure global nature, with multiple co-benefits for people.
Protected areas (PAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation that provide co-benefits for achievement of [...] Read more
Tweet February 17, 2022
Tweet February 17, 2022
Nature-based solutions: rhetoric or reality? House of Commons report
A new House of Commons Science and Technology Committee publication – Nature-based solutions: rhetoric or reality? outlines the potential contribution of nature-based solutions to net zero in the UK.
The report is based on written and spoken evidence from NbSI and focuses on the role of nature-based solutions in reducing carbon emissions and sequestering carbon, as [...] Read more
Tweet January 30, 2022
Tweet January 30, 2022
Highlighting best-practice for integration of NbS into revised NDCs
The NbSI team are in the process of updating our Nature-based Solutions (NbS) Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) Policy Platform. The platform makes information about climate change adaptation planning across the globe openly available, easy and interesting to explore. Pledges are linked to the underlying evidence, and will highlight the prominence of integration of NbS in [...] Read more
Tweet October 28, 2021
Tweet October 28, 2021
NbS Guidelines highlighted in House of Lords S&T committee letter to COP26 President
The House of Lords Science and Technological Committee, chaired by Lord Patel, has written to RH Alok Sharma in his capacity as President for COP26 to highlight the role that nature-based solutions could play in the negotiations, as part of their ongoing inquiry into nature-based solutions. The letter emphasised the importance of adhering to the [...] Read more
Tweet October 16, 2021
Tweet October 16, 2021
New Oxfam report warns of reforestation risks for cropland in low-income countries
A new briefing paper by Oxfam, Tightening the Net: Net zero climate targets – implications for land and food equity, has warned that current net zero climate targets risk reliance on large areas of land in low-income countries to capture carbon emissions, and therefore allowing the avoidance of emissions reductions by the biggest emitters of [...] Read more
Tweet August 3, 2021
Tweet August 3, 2021
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) launched
On June 4th 2021, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) formally launched. The taskforce aims to provide financial institutions and corporations with guidance on their environmental risks and opportunities.
Four founding partners brought together the TNFD – Global Canopy, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and WWF. [...] Read more
Tweet July 20, 2021
Tweet July 20, 2021
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