Healthy ecosystems not only reduce greenhouse gas pollution storing carbon; they also help us adapt to the intensifying effects of a changing climate. This holistic strategy for mitigation and adaptation requires a coordinated approach at multiple levels: international, national, and subnational (e.g., states and cities), as well as the private sector.
Strong public policy is the foundation upon which a coherent, sustained climate strategy is put into action. Realistic policies based on strong science for mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects not only help define where public finance will flow; they also guide policies for years to come and establish critical incentives for private sector participation.
As governments grapple with the challenges of climate change, Forest Trends equips policymakers with the credible data and expertise needed to take decisive action. Our philosophy is that climate policy ought to unlock the potential of forests, wetlands, and other “natural infrastructure” to play their part as the planet’s first line of defense against climate change.
Read More...Mitigation
Forest Trends experts have been participating in international climate negotiations for over a decade. Our policy work in this area focuses on the power of standing forests to dramatically cut carbon emissions. Forest destruction, most critically in tropical regions, currently emits about as much CO2 as all cars and trucks on the planet combined. But by slowing, stopping, and reversing tropical deforestation – and, in turn, letting those forests soak up more carbon – some estimates indicate that we could cut net global emissions by as much as 30 percent.
That’s a tall task, given that traditional market and policy forces often incentivize the destruction of forests rather than their conservation. But the UN program Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), as well as the carbon markets enshrined in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, provide powerful tools to flip the script.
Our experts collaborate with other NGOs in order to make sure that national and sub-national REDD+ programs are structured properly, with full input from all relevant stakeholders. Meanwhile, each year our researchers track the size and scope of voluntary markets, which serve as a critical policy laboratory.
At home in the United States, Forest Trends has worked on innovative climate policy solutions that can put US farms, forests, and grasslands to work and serve as a potent “carbon sink” – and in doing so, fighting climate change – even at a time when the national government is backing away from international negotiations.
Adaptation
Climate policies geared toward reducing emissions are critical, but they must also be accompanied by policies to make communities more resilient to climate change. These policies must be holistic – touching on everything from urban planning to rural land use – and they must be tailored to local and regional circumstances: the solutions in Lima, Peru may look very different from those in Rotterdam, or Guangzhou, or eastern Tennessee.
One common element among all these solutions is a “green+gray” approach that uses natural infrastructure, like healthy forests or coastal wetlands, to make traditional “gray” infrastructure more effective and durable.
