Conserving nature is critical to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals. Protecting, sustainably managing and restoring natural ecosystems, such as forests and wetlands, can provide at least 30 percent of the global action needed to limit average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Yet, nature conservation currently receives only 3 percent of global climate finance. The financing gap for climate mitigation needed in the agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors is larger than the financing gap to mitigate climate change in other sectors (energy, transport, and industry) — and does not account for the billions of dollars that continue to flow into practices that destroy nature and drive greenhouse gas emissions. Estimates show nature-related climate action requires between about US$ 100-300 billion a year in funding — about 10 to 30 times what’s currently available — to meet the Paris Agreement’s targets.

Nature remains among the most effective — and cost-effective — climate solutions. U.N. research shows that three actions — reducing the destruction of forests and other ecosystems, restoring ecosystems and improving the management of working lands, such as farms — are among the top five most effective strategies for cutting climate-warming carbon. Protecting and restoring nature is also necessary to achieve most of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, which were established in 2015 to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives of people everywhere.

Increasing actions that protect and conserve nature to address the climate, biodiversity and ocean crises is key. Nature conservation can directly and materially improve the lives of billions of people around the world. As stewards of lands that contain almost a quarter of the world’s land-based carbon, Indigenous peoples and local communities are on the front lines of climate change. To recognize the importance of these stakeholders, Conservation International works to connect Indigenous peoples and local communities to funding, training and technology — helping to secure their land rights so that protecting nature also protects their livelihoods.

Conservation International helps countries achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement by providing policy recommendations, scientific models, tools and funding platforms for implementing natural climate solutions at scale. We envision a world where nature’s contribution to addressing climate change is maximized — meaning natural climate solutions are implemented to their fullest potential for mitigating climate change — and are also fully deployed in places where ecosystems can help vulnerable populations adapt to the already-present and future effects of climate change.