The world is facing a biodiversity crisis with accelerating rates of extinction. Species are the building blocks of ecosystems that provide a wide range of benefits referred to as ecosystem – goods such as food and fiber and services such as pollination, water filtration, flood control, soil formation as well as climate mitigation. These goods and services are the primary source of wealth for people worldwide. At a time when human populations are facing unprecedented economic challenges, it is critical that investments in Natural Climate Solutions be designed to ensure net gains for both biodiversity and people. When designed with these goals in mind, Natural Climate Solutions improve the health of our natural and working lands, strengthen connections between people and nature, and enhance the well-being of the plants, animals and people they support.

Climate change is already having disproportionate health and economic impacts on the poor, on racial minorities, on Indigenous Peoples, and on women and girls. Policies and programs to advance Natural Climate Solutions need to recognize the underlying causes of inequality and be designed and executed in ways that ensure a fundamental respect for human rights, enhance social and economic resilience, reduce adverse health impacts and provide economic opportunities for most vulnerable communities and individuals.

The climate challenge is critical. It is essential that all of our climate solutions are based on the best available science and innovation. Both public and private funding should be invested in improving Natural Climate Solutions science, enhancing carbon inventories and incentivizing the development of new technologies and techniques. Taking these steps will maximize our ability to reduce emissions and increase sequestration on our natural and working lands. Policies and programs for advancing Natural Climate Solutions should include robust adaptive management protocols to take full advantage of the best available science and innovation.

Science has proven the potential of Natural Climate Solutions to play a key role in our overall strategy to address climate change; however, when developing programs to put these solutions into action, it is also necessary to ensure the rules governing them are transparent, with vigorous standards designed to ensure credibility and accountability. The benefits attributed to Natural Climate Solutions must be assessed based on a full life cycle accounting of carbon and the consequences of the practices.

In the U.S. Natural Climate Solutions currently reduce overall U.S. emissions by 11 percent. We have the potential to nearly triple that performance but reaching that goal will require changing how we protect, manage and restore hundreds of millions of acres of natural and working lands in the U.S. In turn, achieving this will require transformational investments that can dramatically increase the scale of our actions and policies and programs designed to significantly increase practice adoption and ensure enduring results over time. This is an all-hands-on-deck effort that will require innovative policies, forward-thinking corporate action and support for the people on the ground who will bring these solutions to life. The good news is that increasing investment in Natural Climate Solutions also creates jobs, provides revenue to landowners, improves the quality of our air and water, and provides new opportunities for people to connect with nature.