Leveraging Natural Ecosystems for Climate Solutions: The Role of Nature-Based Strategies in Reducing Carbon Emissions

At the Russian Science Day at COP29 in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Committee on Climate Policy and Carbon Regulation, headed by Andrey Melnichenko drew the world's attention to the enormous potential of NbS.

This calls on the capacity of forests, grasslands, peatlands, and wetlands in capturing and storing carbon to contribute toward reduced greenhouse gas emissions by countries like Russia, which have very vital roles in tandem with efforts toward biodiversity and ecosystem health.

Melnichenko has repeatedly underscored that science plays a decisive role in the implementation of nature-based climate solutions, which are essential for meeting both national and international climate goals. Nature-based solutions provide a path to international collaboration-sharing of project outcomes across borders that can hasten efforts toward carbon neutrality by 2060.

India's Nature-Based Solutions: Pioneering Climate Action and Sustainable Development

In fact, India has shown quite some commitment to nature-based solutions as one of the core elements in its approach to remedies on climate change, enhancing biodiversity, and attaining sustainable development.

India Forum for Nature-Based Solutions: In 2022, this national coalition, composed of government bodies, entrepreneurs, and organizations, was inaugurated to promote urban NbS through peer exchanges, technical capacity building, and knowledge sharing. The forum is envisioned to make cities climate-resilient by 2030, benefiting 100 million citizens of India with infrastructure worth $100 billion.

Urban NbS: The cities in India, like Chennai and Surat, have been among the pioneers of NbS-like projects. Wetlands restoration and green infrastructure that helped manage urban flooding and mitigate heat islands contributed to nationwide climate action by invoking similar strategies across other urban centers.

Ecological Restoration of the Coastline: The various mangrove restoration projects along the coasts in India bring one extra layer of protection against natural calamities and therefore improved marine biodiversity. Such projects create a series of on-ground impacts to approximately 11.9 million people within a decade through increased productivity of marine ecosystems and livelihoods provided to coastal communities.

Policy Integration: The NbS has been integrated into the national policies of the Indian government by articulating its vision in balancing economic growth with environment stewardship congruent with the philosophy of India that strengthens climate resilience and sustainable development.

NbS: A Win-Win Solution for the Planet and Nations

NbS signifies an environmental and national biodiversity "win-win." If a country en masse focuses on NbS, it would then go toward attaining the set climate targets and go a long way in helping to win the global fight against climate change. Indeed, not considering the role of natural ecosystems, objectives to drastically reduce net emissions under the Paris Agreement could not be achieved. The maintenance of biodiversity is important to follow the road of sustainable development and appears to be interconnected with many SDGs.

Russian Science Day at COP29: Showcasing National Achievements in Climate Policy

The Science Day featured key figures including Sergey Tverdokhleb, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Committee and others. Tverdokhleb emphasized the strategic importance of developing carbon testing sites within Russia, "The creation of these carbon sites will enable us to develop and test technologies for carbon balance management right here in our own territory."

Russia's Unique Role in Nature-Based Solutions

With its vast landscapes, Russia is in a better position to take the lead in nature-based climate solutions that will have a global impact. Russian ecosystems absorb millions of tons of CO₂ every year, but with strategic investments and supportive policies, their capacity could be increased manifold. Recent reports have said that natural climate projects across Russia may potentially sequester between 500-1,000 million tons of CO₂ per year-a volume equal to the yearly German emissions.

Harnessing the Power of Forests and Peatlands

More than 800 million hectares of Russian territory are covered with forests; that means Russia has the largest forest area in the world. All these forests are a natural absorber of quite substantial amounts of CO₂, thus serving as immense carbon sinks. By investing in reforestation and preventing deforestation, Russia could multiply carbon capture. It is believed that savings of as much as 250 million tons of CO₂ emissions per year could be possible just through reforestation and forest protection initiatives.

Other crucial ecosystems that can serve as a carbon sink are peatlands. While peatlands in Russia can store carbon at astonishing rates when left intact or restored, degraded peatlands emit stored carbon into the atmosphere. Restoring peatlands through a process known as "rewetting" could cut CO₂ emissions by another 100 million tons annually.

Tundra and Grasslands: Untapped Carbon Sinks

The tundra is a unique northern landscape of value in its own right in Russia, which might be destroyed by permafrost thaw that would then release methane-a greenhouse gas more potent than CO₂ by many orders of magnitude. Protection and restoration of the tundra and Arctic could avoid such emissions and could even offset up to 50 million tons CO₂-equivalent annually.

Carbon sequestration is also possible in grasslands. In Russia's grasslands, for example, better management of its high-carbon soils could increase carbon storage potential, estimated to capture as much as 30 million tons of CO₂ per year.

Overcoming Challenges to Realize the Full Potential of NbS

Despite large seizure potential by natural ecosystems, NbS remains underutilized compared to renewable energy sources.

Moreover, most NbS projects cannot develop reliable calculation methodologies related to the benefits produced by ecosystems, often, only easily quantifiable actions are prioritized.

Continuous pursuit in adding to these gaps requires additional projects on greenhouse gas emissions, improvement of the international carbon markets, high-quality scientific data, methodologies of calculation refinement, development of pilot sites as leading tools in ecosystem-based solution approaches.