Australia (CommonWealth)_Experts gathered in Cairns, Australia last month to discuss climate change and asked for much more financing for solutions based on nature. In order to safeguard natural ecosystems and help combat climate change and preserve biodiversity, nature-based solutions must be implemented. As an illustration, conserving or establishing mangroves in coastal locations minimizes the toll that storms have on human life, absorbs carbon, and simultaneously offers a home for fish, birds, and other vegetation.
We confront a twin crisis of climate change and nature, according to UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary Ovais Sarmad, who spoke at the Forum on Finance for Nature-Based Solutions hosted by the UNFCCC Standing Committee of Finance. It is impossible to separate the two. Each day sees a worsening of the mutual, entwined ruin. It only makes sense that environment-based solutions be at the core of tackling both, given the connection between nature and climate change.
Many governments have already included natural solutions into their national climate action plans, often known as Nationally Determined Contributions, and their national adaptation plans. However, increased financial and technical assistance is necessary for such initiatives in poor nations and in local communities. In order to fulfill the climate, environment, and land-neutrality objectives, investments in nature-based solutions must quadruple by 2030, according to Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Currently, only about $133 billion are directed toward such solutions.
Sarmad urged placing the environment and climate at the top of the national and international agendas and at the center of all financial choices, both public and private. Additionally, he urged governments to pay attention to the opinions of small farmers, indigenous peoples, women, and young people as well as local communities. Indigenous Elder Gudju Gudju underlined the importance of nature, native species, and the disastrous effects of their extinction while pointing out the lengthy history of tribal land management practices. While we are here, we must consider not only our small piece of land but also all the other nations that might be impacted by climate change in the absence of action, he added.
