They are inextricably linked and must be addressed together and without delay.
Keeping global warming to below 1.5C will require businesses of all sizes across all industries and regions to have the courage to go all in on their 2030 commitments to halve emissions and end nature loss across their full value chains.
Without nature acting as a carbon sink, global temperatures would already have risen more than 1.5C with deadly consequences: increased drought, lower crop yields, massive coral reef death and rapidly rising sea levels.
Nature’s benefits aren’t only in its carbon capturing abilities, but in services which underpin human health, flood prevention, biodiversity and providing habitats for animals.
This must include clear pathways for implementing policies today that will transform forests, and other land uses, from being carbon sources to carbon sinks by 2030.
We welcome pledges made in the first days of Cop by over 100 global leaders representing over 85% of the world’s forests to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
Despite nature’s potential to contribute 30% of the climate mitigation needed by 2030, it has only received 5% of international climate finance.
This system would incentivise private sector investment in activities that both reduce emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere, particularly in relation to activities around forest management and restoration.
These investments could be made through a variety of channels in a way that supports indigenous peoples and local communities that are proven guardians of the forest.
As well as global policy makers, the private sector has a key role in delivering a successful Cop26 for nature.
Today, companies need to be scaling up existing low-carbon initiatives and technologies, addressing all sources of emissions within their value chains and developing low-carbon solutions where they currently do not yet exist.
The climate and nature emergencies we face cannot be solved by one company or indeed one industry alone, it is time for us to stand together.
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