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Perspectives

Natural Climate Solutions

Embrace Nature, Empower the Planet

a close up of leaves on a tree, back-lit by the sun.
Oak Leaves Oak leaves in the sunshine at Milford Neck Preserve © John Hinkson/TNC

Combined with cutting fossil fuels and accelerating renewable energy, natural climate solutions offer immediate and cost-effective ways to tackle the climate crisis—while also addressing biodiversity loss and supporting human health and livelihoods.

What are Natural Climate Solutions?

The Tillinghast pond surrounded by a forest
Rhode Island: The Tillinghast Pond Management Area in western Rhode Island. © Ayla Fox

Natural climate solutions

are actions to protect, better manage and restore nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and store carbon.

View of wetlands at South Cape May
South Cape May Meadows wetland View of wetlands at South Cape May Meadows, in Cape May, New Jersey. © Copyright (c) 2018 Jon Bilous/Shutterstock. No use without permission.

Natural climate solutions include practices like

improving forest management to help forest owners increase the carbon stored in their trees; reducing fertilizer use for fewer greenhouse gas emissions; restoring coastal wetlands to sequester carbon in submerged soil.

Science shows that—combined with cutting fossil-fuel use and accelerating renewable energy—natural climate solutions can help us avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

What is the science behind natural climate solutions?

In 2017, The Nature Conservancy led a landmark study that showed how natural climate solutions to protect, better manage, and restore forests, grasslands and wetlands could contribute a third of the emissions reductions we need to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The authors developed a framework to distill the evidence into natural climate solutions pathways that demonstrate the full climate potential of nature.

A dense green forest
Saving Belize's Maya Forest Peccary Hills National Park is one of many protected areas that encompass nearly 40% of Belize. © Lucas Bustamante

Globally, natural climate solutions could deliver more than a third of the emission reductions needed by 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Explore NCS Research

Our groundbreaking study found that natural climate solutions can provide one-third of the mitigation needed by 2030 to keep global temperatures livable.

Since then, TNC scientists and partners have continued investigating how, when and where to invest in natural climate solutions to deliver on the world's most urgent climate goals. Our experts have published more than 50 studies that demonstrate the power of natural climate solutions in the United States, Canada, Indonesia and around the world.

Graphic showing the different pathways to protect, manage and restore lands that add up to 11 gigatons of reduced emissions.
Protect, Manage, Restore Every action—or “pathway”—evaluated in the study involved protecting, better managing or restoring nature.

Climate 101

Explaining Natural Climate Solutions

WHAT ARE NATURAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS? (3:01) In this video, it's the future, and we look back on how we saved the world with nature. In the 2020s, we learned that nature could pull 11 billion metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

See the Science Studies

  • Natural Climate Solutions (Griscom et al.)

    PNAS | Oct 15, 2017

    Groundbreaking research by TNC and 15 other institutions, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read key takeaways from the study

  • More NCS Research

    Explore our Natural Climate Solutions Resource Center to see the latest science, research and case studies demonstrating how nature can help increase carbon storage and avoid greenhouse gas emissions around the world. See a list of studies about NCS

What are the other benefits of natural climate solutions?

View from below of a monkey in a tree.

Supporting biodiversity

Nature provides sources of food and shelter for mammals, birds, and insects. It also creates ecosystem connectivity, or wildlife corridors—stretches of habitat that allow species to move around safely.

See this example from Belize
Aerial view of a community on the water's edge.

Making communities more resilient

Natural disasters are getting worse but natural climate solutions can help ease the danger. For example, coral reefs will reduce the impacts of damaging storm surges, protecting infrastructure and people.

Making stronger coastlines
The sun behind a cloud reflected over water.

Promoting clean air and water

It protects the air we breathe and the water we (and other species) need to survive. For example, healthy peatlands and wetlands can remove aquatic nutrients, sediments and pollutant metals from the water.

See this example from Africa
Close up of hands holding seed pods.

Helping economies thrive

Actions like improved forest management and regenerative farming practices can create new jobs, supporting rural economies and local communities while also protecting nature.

See Brazil's plan

What do natural climate solutions look like in practice?

A sunset over a green forest
Cumberland Forest The Appalachian Mountain Range is one of TNC’s four global focal regions. Ohio supporters invested more than $1 million in our efforts to conserve its rich biodiversity. © Cameron Davidson

Protection

Conserving ecosystems in a healthy state instead of converting them for other intensive uses like development avoids the release of greenhouse gasses.

People measuring a cut-down tree
Hollow Logs TNC staff and forest technicians measure the amount of hollowness at the center of a log in Republic of the Congo. © Peter Ellis/TNC

Better Management

Improving how forests are managed or expanding cover crops to keep soil healthy can significantly increase the amount of carbon sequestered by forests and fields. These actions may also reduce operating costs or provide more jobs.

Mangroves
Mangroves take root Growing trees in a mangrove restoration site in Kenya. Mangrove forests shelter young fish, store carbon in the soil and defend coastlines from the impact of storms. © Sarah Waiswa

Restoration

Planting trees in cities, replanting formerly forested land or bringing back natural flows to coastal wetlands and peatlands will increase carbon capture. These actions can also support construction, engineering and conservation jobs.

Explore in our map examples of our Natural Climate Solutions work

Other Tools and Resources

Wind farm turbines
West Virginia wind farm Wind farm turbines situated on a ridge top in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia. © Kent Mason

New Climate Insights

Aerial view of Holmes River, British Columbia.

The Nature of Innovation: The Critical Role of Natural Climate Solutions

We must reduce emissions dramatically this decade to keep global temperatures in safe bounds—and both technology and nature can play a role, says TNC's Director of Global Climate Science.

Aerial photo of forests in the Emerald Edge of British Columbia.

Living Carbon: Stories of Nature’s Climate Solutions

In this series, we showcase innovative carbon projects in Africa, the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, Chile's Valdivian Forest, and the Emerald Edge of North America's Pacific Coast.

Photo of a person visible from knees down, with hands planting a pine seedling.

Reforesting the U.S.

The Reforestation Hub identifies up to 148 million acres of total opportunity for reforestation, which could capture up to 535 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

By Susan Cook-Patton