“Nature-based solutions” are gaining traction as a means of fighting climate change while protecting biodiversity. Tree planting, a key part of several countries’ COP26 pledges, is one such proposal – but experts say that reforestation, while essential, is far from a silver bullet against climate crises.
Two of the world’s biggest fossil-fuel producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, have promised in recent weeks to go carbon neutral by 2060. Both Moscow and Riyadh plan to offset much of their carbon emissions from fossil fuels by planting millions of trees.
And they are not alone. COP26 host Boris Johnson wants to make tree planting a priority at the UN climate conference along with additional action on “coal, cars and cash”.
“To be net-zero for carbon you must be net-positive for trees, and by 2030 we want to be planting far more trees across the world than we are losing,” the British prime minister said in August.
Tree-planting belongs to a wider set of environmental measures known as “nature-based solutions”, which the UN and many scientists say are critical to averting catastrophic climate change – and which COP26 organisers hope to propel into the mainstream.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which coined the term, defines nature-based solutions as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems”. Protecting and expanding forests is central to this approach.
“Forests, and in particular tropical forests, absorb about a third of the greenhouse gases emitted every year,” explained Anne Larigauderie, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which works with the UN on protecting biodiversity, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “They could do much more if we stopped deforestation and…
Source : france24
