CLIMATE change and biodiversity collapse represent a double crisis for our world.
The threat is increasing and there is an urgent need to scale-up response efforts. Our immediate tendency is to look to technology for solutions.
But, we should not overlook nature. Sometimes natural solutions may be more cost-effective.
Over billions of years, Earth has developed a resilient balance that provides a breeding ground for solutions and a source of considerable innovation, which is largely unexploited.
Why? Is it because we innately mistrust nature and associate "wildness" with potential danger, rather than the benefits it can bestow?
As noted by Isabelle Autissier, president of World Wide Fund for Nature France: "Have we found anything better than earthworms to purify the soil? And yet, humans have neglected to realise this, or even worse, have destroyed these natural mechanisms."
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature defines nature-based solutions (NBS) as "actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits".
NBS have significant underutilised potential to help address climate change, food and water security, natural disasters, biodiversity loss, and human health.
Last week, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services issued a report citing estimates that Covid-19 will have racked up an economic cost of US$8 to US$16 trillion by next July.
While Covid-19 is an extreme situation, any one of up to 850,000 animal viruses could jump to humans. And primarily due to land use change, zoonotic disease outbreaks are more frequent, producing annual economic impacts of about US$1 trillion, the report said.
Steps to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks, meanwhile, — dealing with deforestation, the wildlife trade and better surveillance — would cost only a small fraction of that annual bill — about US$22 to US$31 billion. And that sum falls even further — to between US$18 and US$27 billion — if the benefits of reduced deforestation on carbon sequestration are calculated.
Research has shown that nature-based solutions can provide over one-third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030 to stabilise warming to below 2°C, achieving nature's mitigation potential of 10 to 12 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
Adequate investment in NBS will help reduce financial consequences of climate change, and contribute to the creation of new jobs to livelihood resilience, to reducing people's poverty and other Sustainable Development Goals.
Nature-based solutions are effective, long-term, cost-efficient and globally scalable. And they aren't confined to wilderness and rural settings; they can be applied in urban settings to provide benefits that range from improving public health to reducing energy costs and pollution to regenerating urban spaces.
Today, nature-based solutions receive only a small share of climate finance. We need to maximise nature's contribution to addressing the problems of an increasingly crowded and needful world. There are exemplary initiatives ready for extension and intensification.
Indeed, Malaysia has some success stories to share. Last January, George Town took first place at the Climathon Global Awards 2020 with a nature-based climate adaptation plan by the Penang Island City Council and Think City, an urban rejuvenation organisation.
It involves planting climate resilient species of trees, introducing upstream retention to prevent flooding, and raising awareness through social programmes. It will be implemented with state and federal agencies, community groups and scientific institutions.
As articulated during the Climate Action Summit in 2019: "World leaders should do all within their power to ensure that nature's transformative potential is fully valued and realised in decision-making, especially in relation to climate action.
"This includes governance processes that are designed to stop the destruction of nature and the damage caused by investments or incentives that contribute to environmental harm. There is a need to recognise that NBS have an enormous potential which can be effectively realised through international and regional cooperation among States and with the participation and inclusion of all stakeholders, including youth, women, indigenous people and local communities."
The writer is ambassador and science adviser to the Campaign for Nature, was the Founding Chair of IPBES, and is senior fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia