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Nature-based solutions play key role in mitigating climate change, suggest researchers

A new study shows that nature-based solutions are crucial to mitigate climate change, but only if they go hand in hand with a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

What are nature-based solutions, and can they help us achieve the Paris Agreement maintaining the average global temperature rise below 2° Celsius?

Guenet and team from the ENS Geology Laboratory, École Normale Supérieure of Paris, explain the role these techniques play in climate change mitigation in their recently published paper "Les solutions fondées sur la nature" (nature-based solutions).

The main idea behind nature-based solutions is that environmental problems can be solved through a deep understanding of how ecosystems work. In this way, humans can tap into the many and varied benefits—and services—that the natural environment may provide.

In their paper, they mainly focus on the mitigation services to contrast climate change. This particular group of nature-based solutions is often called nature-based climate solutions.

The objectives of this sub-category are:

1. to prevent carbon emissions, mainly by avoiding deforestation
2. to restore degraded ecosystems promoting carbon sinks (for example reducing timber harvesting)
3. to implement the best management practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from forests, croplands, and grasslands.

According to the researchers, nature-based solutions must be designed for longevity, accounting for long-term carbon sinks of terrestrial ecosystems.