Back To Nature At COP28: Restoration Strategies To Combat Climate Change - Forbes

Back To Nature At COP28: Restoration Strategies To Combat Climate Change
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 13: Delegates applaud after a speech by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber ... [+] (C), President of the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference, during a plenary session on day thirteen of the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference on December 13, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The conference has gone into an extra day as delegations continue to negotiate over the wording of the final agreement. The COP28, which was originally scheduled to run from November 30 through December 12, has brought together stakeholders, including international heads of state and other leaders, scientists, environmentalists, indigenous peoples representatives, activists and others to discuss and agree on the implementation of global measures towards mitigating the effects of climate change. (Photo by Fadel Dawod/Getty Images)

COP 28 was a roller coaster for environmentalists. Going into the conference, despite tensions, breakthrough climate agreements between the U.S. and China gave the forum a sense of hope – if geopolitical rivals could unite behind going green, perhaps the future would be bright after all.

However, a lack of real progress on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which should have established the framework and infrastructure for a global carbon market, tempered the optimism. It ended in total disagreement as countries failed to align their views on these fundamental issues.

COP28, like any good roller coaster, had plenty of unexpected twists and turns accompanying the highs and lows. One outstanding trend was the massive presence of nature-based solutions(NBS). Nature-based solutions involve using natural ecosystems for climate remediation. This can be intuitive, such as restoring wetlands or reforesting over-logged areas. It can be proactive, such as introducing wolves or other predators into areas to cull ungulates, such as deer, which eat too much vegetation, or assuring that our cities are green.

During the 2021 COP26 and 2022 COP27, NBS barely featured. In fact, some environmental groups lambasted this approach as poorly defined, defeatist, and counterproductive. The greatest fear was that if NBS were advanced, it would provide excuses for energy producers to proceed with business as usual.
Students wash their hands on a puddle after planting tree seedlings at a school playground during ... [+] the nationwide tree planting public holiday in Nairobi on November 13, 2023. The Kenyan Government has declared a special holiday on November 13, during which the public across Kenya is expected to plant trees as a contribution to the national efforts to save the country from the effects of climate change. (Photo by LUIS TATO / AFP) (Photo by LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images)

A rapid turnaround has come from a greater acceptance of the “all of the above” green strategy for combating climate change. This strategy argues that steps need to be taken on every possible front to remediate greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of concerns about moral hazards or free rider problems. This means that in addition to efforts such as switching to renewables, investing in nuclear, transitioning from coal to natural gas, and the sundry assortment of other energy-generation solutions, consumption can be lowered, recycling accelerated, and nature reinforced and restored with NBS. While NBS is only one strategy amongst many, it’s a good thing that it is finally getting the institutional support it deserves.

While NBS can pursue long-term changes for entire regions, its biggest advantage over other climate remediation strategies is that it can quickly address other proximate problems related to climate change. For example, while zero-emissions, renewable energy would eventually help all farmers due to a more stable climate, the advantage of NBS is that it can immediately help farmers and local food-insecure markets by enabling the modernization and sustainability of agriculture. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, NBS is one of the most actionable and immediately useful green strategies capable of rapidly saving and improving lives by restoring currently destroyed habitats, promoting tourism, and creating employment.
TOPSHOT - This photo taken on May 17, 2023, shows a worker picking up trash from Ha Long Bay in ... [+] northeast Vietnam. More than seven million visitors came to visit the spectacular limestone karsts of Ha Long Bay, on Vietnam's northeastern coast, in 2022. Authorities hope that number will jump to eight and a half million this year. But the site's popularity, and the subsequent rapid growth of Ha Long City — which is now home to a cable car, amusement park, luxury hotels and thousands of new homes — severely damaged the ecosystem of the water. (Photo by Nam NGUYEN / AFP) / To go with 'VIETNAM-ENVIRONMENT-POLLUTION-TOURISM-PLASTIC', FOCUS by Alice PHILIPSON (Photo by NAM NGUYEN/AFP via Getty Images)

NBS can also be implemented comparatively cheaply, which is vital for the developing world. In Southeast Asia, the approach is being put to work, preserving local ecosystems and ensuring other modernizing efforts do not derail environmental conservation. Rwanda has used NBS to restore its forests by creating agriculture-friendly reforestation strategies. The low-price tag has

even enabled the Genesee Valley Conservancy near Washington D.C. to make great strides toward environmental protection without the extensive governmental support seen at more famous national parks. Even protecting farmland against urban sprawl counts as NBS.

NBS is still a developing strategy, but the numbers are encouraging. According to the World Bank’s report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 37% of the needed remediation required by 2030 can come from NBS.

In a bold initiative, an EU- and U.S.-sanctioned Russian billionaire, Andrey Melnichenko, unveiled an expansive pavilion at COP28 which involves restoring the wooly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) to the frozen steppes in Siberia. The now-extinct pachyderm, who once roamed northern latitudes, could help fight climate change. Melnichenko’s rationale for this proposed “Jurassic Park” move is that it could be used to address a pressing problem. Russia’s melting permafrost is releasing copious amounts of dangerous methane into the atmosphere, which is also damaging infrastructure at northern latitudes, sinking pipelines that will require expensive repair, which only generates more emissions. His proposed solution is NBS, Russian style. The Pleistocene Park project aims to restore the conditions of the high Arctic prevalent around 11,000 years ago, when it was a pastured area heavily populated with herbivores, to help combat climate change. It’s a mammoth task but could be one worth tackling.

Melnichenko used this idea to catch public attention to NBS projects. He argues that their potential is now limited by the lack of access to high-margin carbon markets (mostly western). If the proper investments are made, not only would this be far cheaper than other production-centric remediation strategies, but it is likely to turn a profit within 5-10 years by decreasing the money spent on aid, erosion mitigation, and other emergency environmental expenditures.

The ability to enact NBS in the developing world led to buzz at COP28 around Melnichenko’s proposal that the UN create a permanent body to evaluate NBS projects' impact and implement them.

NBS also has a vital emotional and political advantage – it is tangible. Carbon emissions and statistics may be understood but not viscerally felt. However, people can readily grasp the importance of restoring forests or cleaning rivers. Participation in NBS is also open to the general public, enabling more grassroots action, a wider environmental constituency, and a greater green consciousness.

NBS may not conjure the same image of human progress and innovation as endless rows of offshore windmills, but it could prove no less vital to saving the planet and its champions no less praiseworthy than those advancing renewable energy in the years to come. A revived mammoth in the northern steppes standing up to defend the permafrost could be no less a symbol of human progress than fields of gleaming solar panels in the desert.