The arguments about how corporations and government organisations can transition to climate-friendly operations are fairly well rehearsed these days.
Everybody knows the script so well that they can practically repeat it blindfold, but what about what could be called the “nature transition”, where the focus is on biodiversity and nature restoration?
Dr. M. Sanjayan, the chief executive officer of the non-profit Conservation International, said in an interview while there has been tremendous progress in addressing the move to renewable energy, progress has been slower in tackling the “nature transition”.
Sanjayan said nature restoration, conservation and biodiversity offers the best return on investment, can create new jobs in the Global South and remains relatively uncontroversial.
“We have embraced the notion that climate change is real,” he told. “And we understand we have to act in order to tackle it, but so far the nature transition has really struggled to get out of the gate.”
He added that there are now numerous international agreements and conventions in place, encouraging both governments and private corporations to take action, more funding is needed.
According to United Nations estimates, he said the world is currently $700 billion a year short of what’s required to reverse global nature loss.
And he added while the market is expanding quickly, but there is a leadership vacuum at the top to take projects forward.
Conservation International recently a detailed statement on the role of “nature credits” in addressing the global crises of biodiversity loss, climate change and human development inequities.
This statement outlines the strategy Conservation International sees as essential for equitable and well-governed nature credit markets and details the organizational principles it will apply to help ensure both high-integrity supply and demand for nature credits.
“The challenge we have right now is not as much about raising capital, as about finding enough investable, shovel-ready projects, and that requires a certain level of scale.
And he said nature-based projects can sometimes struggle to attract investment because they operate over long periods of time.
But he did single out several long-term restoration projects including Mastercard’s ambitious goal of planting 100 million trees, as part of its Priceless Planet initiative.
The initiative is a coalition of individuals, businesses, and corporate partners, who aim to fight climate change through funding the restoration of 100 million trees.
Since the inception of the Priceless Planet Coalition in 2020, Mastercard has expanded its portfolio of restoration projects to 19 sites across six continents.
Mastercard’s chief sustainability officer Ellen Jackowski said in an interview the financial services company recognizes the role of nature in combatting climate change.
Jackowski said a partnership approach is key to its Priceless Planet initiative, with other companies both inside and outside its supply chain involved.
She added it was determined to find the best partners to deliver the tree restoration projects at locations around the world, as part of the Priceless Planet Coalition.
“There are three pillars to all of our Priceless Planet Coalition programmes,” she told me.
“A focus on climate, focus on biodiversity, and then also on the livelihoods of the communities.
“This is because there are plenty of examples out there where the local communities were not involved in the restoration project or the plans, which led to some of the failure of those programmes.”
Jackowski said with organisations like Conservation International at the helm of the programme, restoration sites are being picked according to climate science.
She added there is also a five-year monitoring framework in place to measure what is happening at each site, including eco-system integrity, socio-economic impact and carbon sequestration.
“We have made sure that we’re looking at the longer term. Restoration does not happen in a day,” she added.
“Climate change is urgent, and we all need to act right now. But we also need to make sure that the actions that we are taking have their intended impact, which is why we have been so careful in structuring this coalition, and who we partnered with.”
