The Five Principles That Define Natural Climate Solutions

The paper, published in Nature Communications, represents the consensus of a diverse group of authors from six organizations and is informed by leading scientific research and best practices from around the world. With global alignment on what constitutes effective, equitable, and sustainable natural climate solutions, the researchers hope to inspire immediate action to unlock the full climate potential of nature in tandem with global decarbonization efforts. Nature will always be here, but our window of opportunity to work with nature to solve the climate crisis is closing fast.

Read on to learn about the five principles of natural climate solutions, with examples of how each principle is already being put into practice in community-driven NCS projects around the world.

Here it’s worth highlighting the difference between natural climate solutions and nature-based solutions. While natural climate solutions (NCS) are focused specifically on climate mitigation, nature-based solutions (NbS) are actions that address broader societal challenges by protecting, sustainably managing, and restoring ecosystems, benefiting both biodiversity and human well-being. NCS thus have strong overlaps with NbS. Although NCS focus on climate mitigation potential they can also bring innumerous co-benefits to communities, ecosystems, and biodiversity as well.

Natural climate solutions result from the human stewardship of ecosystems.

Nature and people are interconnected, and throughout history humans have shaped natural environments—sometimes for worse, sometimes for better. Natural climate solutions underscore this role that people play in positively stewarding ecosystems towards climate mitigation outcomes. An example of a climate-positive relationship between humans and natural environments can be seen in forests well-managed for timber. Many foresters have transformed logging practices to avoid unnecessary damage to the forests where they harvest wood. These improved forest management practices ensure that even a forest managed for timber stays a forest, that it stores more carbon, and that it continues to foster biodiversity.

Natural climate solutions do not move ecosystems further from their natural state.

Being nature-based means NCS are rooted in responsible human stewardship of ecosystems, in a way that preserves their natural state. Reforestation, for example, should be done with care to ensure that the right trees are planted in the right place. This usually means planting native species that are adapted to the region and its conditions. Tree planting without this consideration can disrupt the natural processes of the forest, so any reforestation NCS should preserve or restore the natural structure, composition and function of ecosystems.

NCS are primarily designed to provide effective climate benefits, but since they are implemented and maintained through human stewardship actions, it’s important that they allow ecosystems to sustain the delivery of critical services to the humans that steward them. If NCS undermine the provision of food, fiber, wood, biodiversity, and resilience, they are less likely to be sustained by the people who need these services to thrive.

Natural climate solutions sustain biodiversity.

In many cases NCS actively preserve and foster biodiversity by protecting and adding habitat and food sources for wildlife and by restoring plant species that were otherwise degraded or in decline. A key component of the sustainability principle is that NCS must not harm biodiversity. If we return to the reforestation example, adding trees to native grasslands may help carbon sequestration by increasing tree biomass in the area, but would damage wildlife habitat and reduce native biodiversity by negatively impacting species that depend on grassland ecosystems for survival.

Natural climate solutions sustain food, fiber, and wood production.

Thriving economies and communities are essential to the longevity of NCS. These solutions often occur in food systems, such as agricultural or grazing lands or coastal ecosystems where fishing occurs. In these areas, NCS can (and often do) actively contribute to healthy and sustainable food production, providing food security and upholding the livelihoods of farmers, ranchers, and fishers. Another key aspect of NCS is that they cannot, on net, actively reduce the production of food, fiber, and wood.

For example, forest-based NCS (like improved forest management and avoided deforestation) must consider the impacts on both people and the climate. Trees and forests play a pivotal role in storing carbon and reducing emissions but they also sustain the livelihoods of communities who rely on food, fiber, and wood. Reforesting croplands would not be considered an NCS because it threatens food security, nor would letting managed forests regenerate to their natural state in ways that compromise timber and wood products. The world still needs these products to continue thriving. NCS facilitate the necessary, ongoing production of fiber and wood resources ‑ which can have a much smaller carbon footprint in comparison to other building materials - without causing unnecessary harm to forests. 

Natural climate solutions sustain climate adaptation services.

Natural climate solutions can also help communities and ecosystems adjust to the changing climate. Restoring mangroves in coastal communities, for example, not only stores additional carbon – it helps prevent coastal erosion and provides a buffer against storm surges. As the effects of climate change worsen, ensuring NCS are sustainable must include consideration of how these actions can help people and nature adapt to changing conditions, and ensure these critical resiliencies are not compromised.

This means that NCS must provide additional, lasting climate benefits that wouldn’t have occurred without human intervention or extra investment in the potential of nature. For example, avoided forest conversion is an NCS pathway that requires tangible conservation action to prevent a forest from being converted for other uses such as a pasture or palm oil plantation.

NCS shouldn’t replace efforts to reduce emissions but should complement them, delivering long-term results in the effort to tackle climate change. They should also provide durable climate mitigation. This means that any positive changes we make to reduce emissions and combat climate change using NCS should last long enough to have a measurable impact.

Of course, it’s important to remember that nothing on Earth is permanent. Therefore, when we think about NCS we should be thinking about durability and not permanence. Every ton of carbon stored today helps us bend the global temperature curve towards cooling. Given the urgency of climate change, we need to focus on what is available to us right now. Furthermore, Earth’s systems are dynamic, and even if individual parts decline or disappear, the system as a whole will persist.

Another important aspect of additionality in NCS to consider is that natural climate solutions are not used to compensate for emissions that need to be avoided in the first place. Natural climate solutions are not a substitute for the massive and rapid fossil fuel emissions reductions we need. There is simply no plausible way out of the climate crisis if we don’t transition to renewable energy. But the same is true for NCS. We must also reduce emissions from land use change and agriculture and increase carbon removals from restoration and improved management to meet global climate targets.

Natural climate solutions need to be consistent, transparent, measurable, and accurate. We cannot understand how NCS are solving to the climate crisis unless we measure how much carbon these interventions are reducing and removing from the atmosphere. But in some cases, carbon is not the only factor that influences climate. Therefore, NCS must quantify their climate benefit as consistently and completely as possible and consider all the factors that could impact the climate, including climate-influencing agents such as methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), or changes in reflectivity (or albedo), such as from snow to evergreen forest. For example, even though planting more trees is usually good for the climate, in snowy, boreal places, additional tree cover might cause more warming because absorb sunlight that was reflected by the snow.  

Natural climate solutions accounting is conservative.

When estimating the positive effect of NCS, it is important to be cautious and include interventions only after science has demonstrated their value. For example, new research is just beginning to demonstrate how liana removal in forests can be included as part of a broader suite of climate-smart forestry actions, but scientists working on this NCS are ensuring sufficient evidence exists to effectively demonstrate a net climate-positive effect. By focusing on these specific, evidence-backed practices, the approach ensures we’re considering only those actions we’re confident will combat climate change.

We must be cautious and clear about the true effectiveness of certain actions and recognize that even if they benefit people or the environment, not all interventions that appear as nature-based solutions have measurable climate benefits. In many cases, these climate benefits are demonstrated through use of a carbon methodology that transparently attributes a climate benefit to a specific activity. But not all methodologies are created equal, and some still require transparent testing to highlight the risks, inaccuracies and inefficiencies further research and measurement.

Natural climate solutions accounting avoids double counting.

Even if NCS methodologies are well-vetted, different well-measured NCS can still overlap with each other. This is why it’s important to pay attention to double-counting. NCS action should be measured using accounting best practices so the climate mitigation potential is only counted once in emissions inventories or carbon market schemes. This is critical to ensure transparency and accuracy of reporting and avoids inflating the impact of natural climate solutions. For example, if a global organization is working with a community on designing an NCS project in pastures and is considering both the potential of reforestation and improved grazing management activities on the same parcel of land, when estimating the NCS opportunity we can only account for one of the opportunities – not both.

Historically, vulnerable populations are the most affected by climate change and Indigenous Peoples, local and coastal communities and women have been overlooked or mistreated when it comes to decisions impacting their land and waters. To be successful, climate actions need to not only include these groups, but respect and value their unique culture, knowledge, rights, and self-determination. Natural climate solutions need to foster a just and inclusive approach to climate solutions to the benefit of whole communities, vulnerable populations, and Indigenous rights’ holders.

Natural climate solutions projects that respect human rights and Indigenous leadership will not only be more resilient, accepted, and adopted but will contribute in a more meaningful way to global climate solutions. 

Natural climate solutions respect human rights.

Implementing NCS is about the survival of our planet and our species. Natural climate solutions respect and promote national and international human rights laws to avoid negative human rights impacts, and so all people and ecosystems can contribute to and benefit equitably from climate solutions. Natural climate solutions need to work with and in support of traditionally underrepresented, marginalized, and vulnerable groups, recognizing their rights and ability to contribute their knowledge to successful NCS implementation.

For example, we cannot, in the name of climate action, use financial resources to acquire land from subsistence farmers or local communities — who depend on the land and lack the same resources — and call it NCS.

Natural climate solutions respect Indigenous self-determination.

Natural climate solutions practices honor Indigenous self-determination, knowledge and leadership, recognizing and valuing their vital role in stewarding lands and waters since time immemorial. For example, NCS must be implemented with Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from Indigenous Peoples and local communities, demonstrating respect, responsibility, and action.

Download the Paper

We cannot achieve the Paris Agreement’s global climate goals without the harnessing the power of natural climate solutions. NCS are readily available and cost-effective, allowing for swift implementation around the world – provided they follow the five principles above.

Global leaders have years, not decades, to implement plans to reduce and remove greenhouse gases from our atmosphere. “The Principles of Natural Climate Solutions” paper presents a guide for completely rethinking our relationship to nature, encouraging us to not only act but steward nature equitably and with maximum climate impact.

TNC works in partnership with scientists, Indigenous Peoples, communities, and leaders across the globe to work together on deploying nature's potential to achieve our global emissions reduction goals.

Development of the platform was led by experts at The Nature Conservancy, with contributions from numerous organizations across the environmental sector. The Principles of NCS were weaved into the creation of naturebase, providing guidance for the accounting used by the wealth of new data offered through the platform, and offering strategies for effective implementation, project integrity, and the prioritization of human rights.