Executive Director of the UN’s Environment Programme calls for urgent action to protect nature

“Humanity has spent centuries treating nature like its worst enemy,” said Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, in her powerful press briefing for the Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “The truth is that nature can be our saviour—but only if we save it first.”

Released in February 2022, the UN-backed report, based on years of research from hundreds of scientists, reveal the impacts from human-caused climate change are much greater than we previously thought.

With every climate-induced flood or famine, we are already witnessing the impacts of what life looks like in a warmer world. Andersen says as much: “Climate change isn’t lurking around the corner, waiting to pounce. It’s already upon us, raining down blows on billions of people.”

Humanity is struggling to pump the breaks before we hit 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, while signs ahead indicate we’re on track to 3 degrees. The vast majority of climate experts agree that if we continue going down this road, we will be met with calamity.

World leaders call for action towards climate-resilient development

The report appeals for measures to enhance our protection of the natural world—more precisely, around 30-50% of the Earth's land, freshwater and ocean areas. It is a call for action from world leaders to move, with urgency, towards climate-resilient development. And while the only institutions that can mobilize resources on the scale we need are national governments—corporations have tremendous potential to affect change. 

The UN's Environmental programme says that current investments in nature-based solutions amount to $133 billion USD—most of which comes from public sources—and investments in nature-based solutions needs to triple by 2030 and to increase four-fold by 2050 from the current level.

Green financing and investment is needed

Closing that gap is going to require an increase in funding from public sources as well as significant investment from the private sector. While the public sector can create important standards, incentives and regulations—the private sector can support the incorporation of biodiversity risk into investment decisions through risk measuring and reporting. This green financing may encourage businesses to operate more sustainably.

Corporate climate action can involve making deep emission cuts in a company’s operations and value chain and addressing unabated emissions with legitimate carbon offset projects. These projects use international standards as a framework for project design, set-up, CO₂-accounting, and monitoring (such as the Gold Standard or the Verified Carbon Standard) and can protect and restore important ecosystems, while supporting a number of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

Forest protection and protecting biodiversity is essential

For example, a legitimate forest protection project would ensure that the area is preserved in the long term, and that its protection is worth more than its deforestation. It helps to put a price, and therefore value, on protecting our natural habitats and the biodiversity they protect. Projects of this type actively engage the local community and create alternative sources of income and opportunities for them. In this way, we can prioritize climate solutions that multi-task.

There is no single offramp from the crisis we are in, but there are a series of sensible routes we can take to steer us from oncoming disaster. “Backing nature is the best way to adapt to, and slow, climate change – while providing jobs and boosting economies,” says Andersen. “We must start dedicating serious thought and funding to transformational adaptation programmes with nature at their heart.”

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